New Delhi. The Haryana government on Thursday honored 52 sportspersons of the state, including Tokyo Olympic gold medalists Neeraj Chopra and Virender Singh, with the prestigious ‘Bhim Award’. State Governor Bandaru Dattatreya honored the players in a program organized at Indradhanush Auditorium in Panchkula on 23rd June. Apart from this, the sports department has distributed the awards given to 11 players from different categories every year after a delay of 4 years. The department had received 13 applications in the year 2017-18, while in 2018-19, 58 players had applied.
The department received 69 applications in 2019-20 and a total of 71 applications in 2020-21. The players have been selected from the applications received from 2017-18 till date. Earlier, the Sports Department had released a preliminary list of 41 players in February this year, while 10 days were given to raise objections. After revision, the final list was prepared. The final list includes wrestlers Bajrang Punia, boxers Manoj Kumar and Virender Singh alias Ganga Pehelwan besides Neeraj Chopra, who won gold medal in javelin throw at the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics.
Governor Mr. @dattatreya has #Panchkula 52 players in the ceremony held in #Bhim Puraskar provided. He said that all these players are the pride of our country and role models for the youth. The youth of the state would take inspiration from these players and bring laurels to the country at the international level. pic.twitter.com/Ep1oLSdass
— DPR Haryana (@DiprHaryana) June 23, 2022
Wrestlers Ravi Kumar, hockey players Surendra Kumar and Sumit, and para players Sumit Antil, Manish Narwal, Singhraj Adhana, Yogesh Kathuria, Harvinder Singh have also been selected for the award. Players have been selected on the basis of their performance. The players who get the Bhim Award are to be given 5 lakh rupees along with the award from the Haryana government. Apart from this, an amount of five thousand rupees per month is also given to these players.
