Chandigarh, Oct. 31: Shooter Gagan Narang hails from Hyderabad but when Haryana honours medal winners of the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG), he will be the biggest beneficiary — thanks to his family’s Panipat connection.
Narang, who won four gold medals at the Games, will walk away with a cash reward of `37.5 lakh. This is the highest prize money among around 35 players, who will be honoured by the Haryana government at a public ceremony to mark Haryana Day near Sonepat on Monday.
Each gold medal winner will get `15 lakh from the Haryana government. Those winning more than one gold medal will get an additional `7.5 lakh for every medal.
And that’s not all. Gagan and other gold medallists will also get a Maruti SX-4 car (priced around `8 lakh), a Nokia mobile phone and 101 kg of desi ghee.
Gagan, who lives in Hyderabad, had recently told Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda that his family had lived in Panipat town of Haryana for decades before moving down south.
Ace badminton player Saina Nehwal, who also won a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games and hails from Hyderabad, will also get a cash reward of `15 lakh from the Haryana government on Monday.
Saina’s father, a scientist based in Hyderabad, hails from Haryana.
The medal winning players being honoured include Saina, Gagan, Krishna Poonia, Anisa Sayyad, Annu Raj Singh, Anita, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Manoj, Paramjeet Samota and Vijender Singh.
Players like Saina, Gagan, Sushil Kumar (wrestling) and Krishna Poonia (discus throw), who do not directly belong to Haryana but have their roots in the state, are being honoured with the same privileges as other medal winners. While Sushil Kumar is from Delhi, Krishna Poonia is married and settled in neighbouring Rajasthan.