The Aam Aadmi Party led Delhi government is yet to pay the promised cash reward to ace Table Tennis player Manika Batra, which she earned following her heroics at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games earlier this year, PTI has reported. Batra had won four medals including two golds at the sporting event which took place in April 2018.
According to the report, Batra is stipulated to receive about Rs 1.7 crore from for her medals which breaks up into Rs 50 lakh each for two gold medals, Rs 40 lakh for a Silver and Rs 30 lakh for a Bronze. Incidentally the report claims that Batra has been sanctioned a higher revised amount, as under the current Delhi government policy gold medal winners receive Rs 14 lakh per medal, silver medallists get Rs 10 lakh and bronze Rs 6 lakh.
According to Delhi government’s Deputy Director of Education (Sports), Manika’s file is currently with the Central government awaiting its approval.
The secretary of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has expressed disappointment at the delay and claimed that most state governments have already paid the required cash reward.
Manika who was also quoted by the report said that, she didn’t know the reason for the delay but expressed hope that she would indeed receive the money. Manika had incidentally also met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Deputy Manish Sisodia in May who had assured her full support.
Incidentally such a delay in giving the prize money to the athletes was also noted in case of Olympic silver medallist Sakshi Malik, who in 2017 had claimed that she was yet to receive the cash reward promised by the Haryana government.