Three months past the CWG, Manika Batra yet to receive cash reward from Delhi government

It has been more than three months since Manika Batra's victorious campaign at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games made her a household name, but the Delhi Government is yet to give her the cash reward promised. Manika Batra is undoubtedly the most talked about Table Tennis player in the country at the present moment and was also the most successful Indian athlete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She won four Gold medals at the Games including two gold medals in the team and singles events respectively, a silver medal in the doubles event and a bronze medal in the mixed team event. According to the policy of the Delhi Government, a gold medal winner at the Commonwealth Games will receive an amount of Rs. 14 lakh, silver medal winners to get a sum of Rs. 10 lakh and a bronze medal winner would be allotted Rs. 6 lakh. But the amount set aside for the medal winners by the Delhi Government was much lesser than what others states like Haryana and Tamil Nadu awards its athletes. A Gold medal winner from Haryana receives an amount of Rs. 1.5 crores while Tamil Nadu rewards the athlete with Rs. 50 lakhs. For this reason, a revised proposal had gone to the Delhi government for approval. Deputy Director of Education (Sports) in the Delhi government Mr Dharmender Singh informed that the file had gone to the cabinet for approval but nothing fruitful has happened yet. As a matter of fact, during the felicitation ceremony organised by the Table Tennis Federation of India, Manika was pretty confident of getting her due from the Delhi government.

“I don’t know why it has not happened so far, but I know it will happen,” said Batra at the felicitation ceremony as per the reports of the PTI. It’s regrettable the concerned authority is so reluctant to reward the athletes who made our nation proud in a stage as big as the Commonwealth Games. Even MP Singh, the secretary of TFFI thought that the Delhi government should have been more responsible. Regarding the matter, he said, “I wish it had happened earlier. Most state governments have already felicitated their medal-winning athletes. They are the pride of the entire nation.”

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Also read: How Manika Batra turned out to be a giant-killer this year