CM hikes prize money to sportsmen

CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa announced on Tuesday in the state Assembly that she was increasing the the amount of prize money given to sportspersons who win medals in national and international events.Focusing not only on the big events such as the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, Jayalalithaa announced that medal winners of South Asian and National Games would now get `5 lakh, `3 lakh and `2 lakh for gold, silver and bronze categories, up from the `1 lakh, `50,000 and `10,000 respectively.At present, Tamil Nadu has nine sports hostels and three sports schools with hostels, providing training to 860 sportspersons, the CM said, adding that she proposes to set up sports hostels in 23 districts. The number of students in these institutions would be increased to 1,100, at an additional expenditure of `1 crore each year and recurring expenditure of `1.16 crore, she added.In each residential hostel, 60 students would be imparted excellent training and other facilities. In the first phase, these hostels would be established in five districts. This measure would cost an additional expenditure of `3 crore at first, with recurring costs of `1.15 crore annually.Jayalithaa recalled that it was during her tenure as CM in 1992 that she had set up the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu on the lines of National Sport Development Authority.