Centre announces Rs 90 lakh reward for Paralympics medallists

TIL Desk Sports/ The Centre on Wednesday announced a total cash reward of Rs 90 lakh for the medal winners of Rio Paralympics. Gold medal winners — paralympic high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu and javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia — will be rewarded with Rs 30 lakh each while Deepa Malik, who won silver medal in shotput, will get Rs 20 lakh and high jumper Varun Singh Bhati, who won a bronze medal at the Rio games,will be given Rs 10 lakh, an official statement said.

The cash reward will be given by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot under the Awareness Generation and Publicity scheme. “Indian para-athletes bagged impressive four medals at the Rio Paralympics 2016 and made history. The success of para-athletes has made India proud. The department has decided to give a cash prize of total Rs 90 lakh to the medal winners,” Gehlot said.

It was India’s best-ever performance in Paralympics history with Thangavelu making a leap of 1.89 metres to bag the gold medal while Bhati jumped his personal best of 1.86m to finish third and won bronze. Jhajharia clinched gold in javelin throw while Malik bagged silver in short put and became the first Indian women to win a medal at the Paralympics games.