New Delhi: Announcing two major initiatives to boost sports and education, Delhi govt on Tuesday increased the cash awards for Olympic and Paralympic medallists from the city and announced the approval of the Mukhyamantri Digital Scheme to provide free laptops to meritorious students.Minister Ashish Sood said the decisions “for Delhi’s development, students and youth” were taken during a Cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Rekha Gupta at Delhi Secretariat.“There were historic decisions made under the Mukhyamantri Khel Prothsahan Yojana. Earlier, Olympic and Paralympic medal winners were awarded Rs 3 crore, Rs 2 crore and Rs 1 crore for gold, silver and bronze medallists, respectively. To encourage the sports ecosystem in Delhi, Olympic gold medallists will now be given Rs 7 crore, silver medallists will receive Rs 5 crore, and bronze medallists Rs 3 crore,” he said.Sood also announced that the Olympic gold and silver medallists will be given Group A jobs in Delhi govt while the bronze medallists will be given Group B jobs. The Cabinet also decided that young sportspersons participating in state- and national-level events will be provided Rs 5 lakh each for coaching and training purposes, he said. The honorarium will be given to students from classes 6 to 12.So far, National Games winners were provided Rs 3 lakh, Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1 lakh for winning gold, silver and bronze medals, Sood said. Govt has now decided to provide Rs 11 lakh for winning any medal in national-level sports events, he added. Govt will provide Rs 20 lakh per year to “elite sportspersons” who participate in national and international games and sports events, the minister said.Meanwhile, Sood said the move to provide students free laptops under the Mukhyamantri Digital Scheme was aimed to ensure their holistic development. “As many as 1,200 meritorious students who passed Class 10 with good marks will be given i7 laptops. This will benefit students from underprivileged backgrounds,” he said, adding that this will be in line with the National Education Policy, and children from underprivileged backgrounds will benefit from the scheme.Sood also criticised the previous AAP dispensation over “non-functional” computer labs in govt schools.“There were some people who called themselves the fathers of the education revolution. There are 1,074 govt schools. I invite you to witness the education revolution there… None of them has a functional computer lab,” he alleged, adding, “At a time when we are talking about experiential learning, AI and data science, our govt school students don’t have functional computer labs or information and communication technology (ICT) labs.“Sood announced that Delhi govt will set up 100 ICT labs in state-run schools.
