Antony awards Rs 30 lakhs for Vijay Kumar, says more to come

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Olympic silver medalist Subedar Major Vijay Kumar was on Friday given a cheque of Rs.30 lakh by Defence Minister A.K. Antony who said more will come his way for the ace shooter in the near future.

"As a token of our appreciation, I have already given Rs 30 lakh cheque. It is just a token... Main thing is (yet to come). It is just the beginning," the Defence Minister said here at a felicitation ceremony here.

Asked if the Defence Ministry would take steps for promoting Vijay Kumar as an officer, he said it was ‘just the beginning and more things will come his way in near future’.

Antony said though 2012-13 was the year of austerity in the Government, the Defence Ministry will make an exemption for providing all possible facilities for its sports persons. He said Vijay Kumar has already won 46 medals at international events and with his hard work, he could bring a Gold medal in the next Olympics.

Antony instructed the Services representatives that they should ensure that more sports persons from armed forces win medals in future sports events. Kumar was promoted to the rank of Subedar Major by the government in a ceremony on Thursday and Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh had promised him all help to elevate him to the rank of an officer.

Vijay, who had express his displeasure over the delay in getting the promotion soon after the medal ceremony in London earlier this month, had on Thursday clarified that he was wrongly quoted by the media.