Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Apr 6: Reacting to Gururaj Poojary from Kundapur winning silver medal at the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, Australia, sports minister, Pramod Madhwaraj, extended congratulations to Gururaj through the media for bringing laurels to this district and Karnataka.

"I am very happy about this thrilling achievement. We had handed him 'Ekalavya' award a month back. Gururaj will be eligible to get group B employment with the government for having won a medal at Commonwealth Games. He will also get prize amount of Rs 25 lac," he stated.

Madhwaraj said that as per the sports policy aready announced, there is provision to provide employment to medal winners. He added that a sum of Rs 48 crore has been set aside for encouraging sports persons and distributed.

Madhwaraj pointed out that in 'Khelo India', Karnataka is placed fourth and that the government is always ready to support sportes persons He wished that the people from here will register great achievements in the Olympics and to achieve this, prolonged hard work is necessary. He said that only people like Gururaj Poojary, who hail from poor and middle class families, can scale such heights.