Haryana Cong MLA Aditya Surjewala alleges negligence towards state's players, coaches

From 2019 to 2025, a large number of pending applications under cash award schemes, scholarships, and sports quota jobs have raised serious questions, he said. During the Question Hour, he raised several questions, including seeking to know the total number of applications received, accepted, and currently pending under the Cash Award Scheme and the scholarship scheme from eligible athletes and coaches from the year 2019 to date.

Congress MLA from Kaithal Aditya Surjewala on Monday alleged that the data presented by the Haryana government in the state Assembly has exposed serious negligence towards the state's players and coaches. From 2019 to 2025, a large number of pending applications under cash award schemes, scholarships, and sports quota jobs have raised serious questions, he said. He raised the issue in the Assembly and launched a sharp attack on the BJP government. During the Question Hour, he raised several questions, including seeking to know the total number of applications received, accepted, and currently pending under the Cash Award Scheme and the scholarship scheme from eligible athletes and coaches from the year 2019 to date. Sports Minister Gaurav Gautam in the House said that applications which have been pending are due to reasons like the pendency of documents at the applicants' end. Gaurav Gautam said that all pending cash rewards up to December 31, 2022, for eligible Haryana athletes who participated in national and international competitions have been fully disbursed. Cash rewards for medal winners of the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and National Games for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025 have also been distributed without any delay. The remaining cash rewards for 2023, 2024 and 2025 will be released to eligible athletes shortly, he said. Surjewala, meanwhile, in a statement, stated that as per government figures, under the cash award scheme, a total of 11,489 applications were received from 2019 till now, out of which only 6,987 were approved. ''A large number of the remaining applications were rejected, while 1,361 applications are still pending. The situation is even worse in the scholarship scheme, out of a total of 26,408 applications, only 16,415 were approved, and 2,209 remain pending,'' Surjewala said. ''Particularly concerning is the recent trend. In 2023, 370 applications were pending; this rose to 684 in 2024, and 307 applications are still unresolved in 2025,'' he alleged in a statement after raising the issue in the Assembly earlier in the day during the Question Hour. He said, according to the reply given by Gautam to details sought by him, under the Eligible Sports Persons (ESP) category for Group-C posts, a total of 1,057 vacancies were proposed from January 2019 to February 2026. However, Surjewala claimed that the Haryana Staff Selection Commission has only advertised a total of 447 Group-C posts based on CET-2022 through advertisement, and the process for these is still ongoing, with the main examination (Mains) yet to be conducted. ''No other recruitment for eligible players in Group-C has been advertised beyond this, despite mentions in the Sports Minister's response,'' Surjewala said. Surjewala questioned why the awards and scholarships for Haryana's players, who are winning medals at international and national levels and bringing glory to the state, are not being disbursed on time. ''The situation with sports quota jobs is even more deplorable. Under the Outstanding Sports Persons (OSP) and Eligible Sports Persons (ESP) quotas, only one appointment has been made in Group A since April 2021,'' he claimed. The OSP and ESP rules clearly state that medal winners at national and international levels are eligible for jobs in Group A and Group B. ''Despite this, they are not being appointed in these categories. It is extremely unfortunate and concerning that numerous players who have brought glory to the state and country in events like the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, and Olympics are not being given opportunities in Group A and Group B positions,'' he said. Further, in the statement, he alleged that departmental processes are extremely slow or there is a serious shortfall in budget management. Applications pending for two years are breaking the morale of players. Meanwhile, regarding coaches' awards, Minister Gautam said that a total of 52 applications were received, out of which 31 eligible coaches have been granted awards amounting to Rs. 3.56 crore in total. Gaurav Gautam further said that eligible student-athletes in Haryana are awarded scholarships upon completion of their respective academic session. Scholarships have been released up to the 2023-24 session, and the scrutiny for the 2024-25 session is in its final stage and will be completed soon, he said. From 2019 to 2023-24, a total of 14,306 players have been given scholarships amounting to Rs 44.74 crore. Additionally, from July 1, 2024, the government has launched an online portal to ensure the timely and smooth disbursement of cash rewards to eligible athletes. The Minister said that cash rewards are provided on an annual basis, not monthly. Since 2019, a total of 8,234 players have been awarded cash rewards amounting to Rs 491.22 crore.

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