Sobhapati Samom
IMPHAL, Sept 14 – The North Eastern Council (NEC) will felicitate ten Olympians from five northeast States who represented India by giving cash incentives during the opening session of the three day seminar on development of sports in the NE Region in Imphal on Saturday.Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh, Union Minister of DoNER Paban Singh Ghatowar, who is also the NEC chairman and president Bijoy Koijam of Manipur Olympic Association, will distribute the cash incentives.
Except bronze medalist boxer MC Mary Kom (in women’s 51 kg boxing), all the nine Olympians will be presented with Rs 5 lakh each. Mary Kom will be awarded a cash incentive of Rs 40 lakh.
The nine NE Olympians include archers– Laishram Bombayla (Manipur), Tarundeep Rai (Sikkim), Jayanta Talukdar (Assam), Chekrovolu Swuro (Nagaland), boxers – Laishram Devendro (Manipur) and Shiva Thapa (Assam), weightlifter Ngangbam Soniya Chanu (Manipur), hockey player Khadangbam Kothajit (Manipur) and tennis player Somdev Barman (Tripura).
At the same time, the much awaited cash incentives worth nearly Rs 5 crore will also be distributed to the 250 Manipur sportspersons who won medals in the 34th National Games held in Jharkhand.
The government will award Rs 3 lakh for the gold medalists, Rs 2 lakh for the silver and Rs 1 lakh for the bronze winners.
Meanwhile, Manipur Olympic Association (MOA) president Bijoy Koijam today said Manipur would be the right place for setting up of sports university of the country.
Bijoy referring to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s plan to set up a sports varsity in Assam said that Manipur would be the most suitable place for establishing a sports university of the country . “We would appraise it to the central leaders through our Chief Minister and visiting DoNER Minister,”he added.
He was briefing mediapersons in connection with tomorrow’s sports seminar at his Manipur Olympic Bhavan chamber at Khuman Lampak sports complex in Imphal this evening.
