Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday presented cash awards of Rs 75 lakh to the gold medallists, Rs 50 lakh for the silver winners and Rs 30 lakh for the athletes who bagged bronze in the just-concluded Paralympics.
Those excelling in mixed teams events, like armless archer Sheetal Devi, who won a bronze along with Rakesh Kumar, got richer by Rs 22.5 lakh.
The minister presented the cheques to the medal winners during an event organised to felicitate the medallists as well as the other participants at the Paris Paralympics.
Mandaviya also pledged full support and facilities for para-athletes to aim for more medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.
"The country is rising in Paralympics and para sports. From 4 medals in 2016, India have won 19 medals in Tokyo and 29 in Paris with 18th place finish," Mandaviya said.
"We will provide all the facilities to all of our para-athletes so that we can win more medals and gold medals in 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics." Addressing the Paralympians, the minister said, "You have brought laurels for the country, you have shown that you can successfully challenged the challenges of life.
"But you should not stop now. We should start preparations for the next Paralympics in Los Angeles (in 2028) and then for 2032 and win more and more medals. Our target should be to produce our best performance when India hopefully hosts the Olympics and Paralympics in 2036." India concluded their historic Paris Paralympics campaign with 29 medals, including seven gold, nine silver, and 13 bronze medals, marking the country's best performance in the competition's history.
Gold medallists like javelin throwers Sumit Antil and Navdeep Singh said they would work harder to defend their titles in LA 2028. Tuesday's felicitation saw a large number of para track and field athletes receiving cheques from the sports minister after they won an unprecedented 17 medals, including four gold.
Paralympics Committee of India President Devendra Jhajharia said that India's rise as a Paralympics power was the result of a collective effort of all the concerned stakeholders, including the players and coaches.
Besides Antil and Navdeep, other gold winners -- high jumper Praveen Kumar, club thrower Dharambir Nain and archer Harvinder Singh -- also received the cheques from the sports minister.
The government has already felicitated shooters, including gold winner Avani Lekhara, and shuttlers like top-podium finisher Nitesh Kumar after they returned home last week, and therefore they were not present at Tuesday's function.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)
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