Sandeep Singh gets a booty Rs.47 lac (USD 94k); and a few questions.

Haryana chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday gave away cash awards amounting to Rs 1.08 crore to Haryana hockey players (men and women), with lions share going to ace Indian hockey star Sandeep Singh.

Sandeep Singh and Sardar Singh, the two players of Indian Hockey team hailing from Haryana, who have qualified for London Olympics and five members of the Indian women hockey team, who had participated in the London Olympics qualifying competition held in Delhi last March, are the beneficiaries of the State’s generosity.

Following is the list of players with the booty they got.

Men
Sandeep Singh Rs. 47 lac
Sardar Singh. Rs. 11 lac
Harpreet Singh Rs. 10 lac

Women:
Rani Rampal Rs.5 lac
Jasjeet Handa Rs.5 lac
Ritu Rani Rs.5 lac
Joydeep Kaur Rs.5 lac
Jaspreet Kaur Rs.5 lac
Poonam Rani Rs.5 lac
Savita Rs.5 lac
Deepika Thakur Rs.5 lac

While the gesture of the State is highly appreciated, the basis on which the quantum of monies were decided for individual players, needs to be looked at critically.

No government here in India, Federal or Provincial, has ever presented a purse for scoring specific number of goals, as has been done in the case of Sandeep Singh.
He struck give goals against France in the Delhi Qualifier finals, each is a beauty, and Rs. 5 lac was given for each: but giving prize money to an individual for a team success however is not ethically a right step.

Its midfield that normally engineer moves, and then a couple of clever forwards who force the defence to commit mistakes, thereby earning the precious penalty corners. Conversion of penalty corner is in itself a team work, as it entails perfect symphony between the pusher and stopper and then the role of likes of Sandeep Singh comes.

Hooda gave away Rs 47 lac to ace hockey player Sandeep Singh, which included Rs 11 lakh for qualifying for London Olympics and Rs 25 lac and Rs 11 lac for scoring five in the Olympic qualifier finals, and 11 goals in the same tournament’s league stage.

Hooda gave away Rs 11 lakh to Sardara Singh for qualifying for Olympics in hockey. He also gave away Rs 10 lakh to Harpreet Singh for winning gold medal in Asian hockey championship. The members of Indian women hockey team who got Rs five lakh each as reward included Rani Rampal, Jasjeet Handa, Ritu Rani, Joydeep Kaur and Jaspreet Kaur of Shahabad, Poonam Rani and Savita of Hisar and Deepika Thakur of Yamunanagar.

The State Government has given Government jobs to 431 outstanding sportspersons, which included the posts of Inspector and Deputy Superintendent of Police. The Chief Minister has enhanced the reward money for those who would win medals in Olympic Games. The winner of gold medal would get Rs 2.50 crore, silver Rs 1.50 crore and the winner of bronze medal would get Rs one crore.