When it comes to neighbourhood rivalry,Punjab and Haryana often make for an interesting case study. Stung by criticism for not rewarding its Commonwealth Games winners as handsomely as Haryana,which rewarded its gold medalists with Rs 15 lakh in cash and announced a Rs 25 lakh prize for gold medals won in the ongoing Asian Games,the Punjab government,effecting a massive Rs 10 lakh hike,has now decided to award its gold winning sportspersons in Asian Games Rs 26 lakh each,narrowly and carefully surpassing Haryanas prize money by a lakh. The decision to enhance the prize money was made today soon after Jalandhar's Manjit Kaur and Amritsar's Mandeep Kaur bagged gold in 4x400 relay race at Guangzhou. Sensing an opportunity to outshine his neighbouring state,Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal decided to hike the cash prize reward for Asiad gold winners by Rs 10 lakh. A formal decision to this effect will be taken by the Punjab Cabinet shortly,highly placed sources told The Indian Express. After Haryana awarded each of its CWG gold winners with Rs 15 lakh in cash,a car,a Nokia mobile phone and 101 kg of desi ghee on November 1 in Sonepat,the Punjab Cabinet held a meeting on November 4 and decided to hike its cash prize for gold medalists from the then Rs 7 lakh to Rs 16 lakh,a lakh more than Haryana's. But with Haryana going a step further in hiking the cash award to Rs 25 lakh for an Asiad gold,Punjab,which is still to reward its Commonwealth Games winners,was under pressure to match up. And not only has it matched up,but has again come up with an amount that would keep it a notch above Haryana. The Rs 26 lakh award,however,will not come into effect with retrospective effect and those Punjab athletes who won golds in the CWG will be awarded Rs 16 lakh each only. For those winning the silver at Guangzhou,Punjab will now pay a cash award of Rs 16 lakh,again beating Haryana's Rs 15 lakh by a lakh. And these "highest-ever" cash awards to Commonwealth,Asian Games winners will be given away at a gala closing ceremony of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Games to be held in the state from November 4 to 12. The hiked rewards will come for cabinet nod during its next meeting,a spokesperson of the government said. The games,which are being held in three cities Jalandhar,Ludhiana and Patiala will conclude on December 12 in Ludhiana. As for the Olympics,the Haryana government has announced cash awards of Rs 2 crore,Rs 1 crore and Rs 50 lakh for gold,silver and bronze medal winners,respectively. The amounts which Punjab may come up with to beat Haryana are not too difficult to guess. (inputs by Rajendra Khatry)
