RANCHI: In a significant step towards promoting sports in Jharkhand, the state Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to provide a monthly pension to athletes, with amounts ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000.
A total of 26 proposals were cleared at the meeting, while two were postponed for further consideration.
Under the revised scheme, pensions will be provided to athletes from the state who have won medals in recognised international and national sports competitions. The pension structure has been reorganised into 10 categories.
A monthly pension of Rs 20,000 will be given to athletes who have won the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award and medals at the Olympic Games.
Medal winners at events such as the World Cup, Asian Games, SAF Games and National Games will receive pensions ranging between Rs 5,000 and Rs 16,000 per month. National Games medal winners will receive the minimum pension of Rs 5,000 per month.
Earlier, in July 2021, Chief Minister Hemant Soren had announced a cash reward of Rs 2 crore for players from Jharkhand who win gold medals for India at the Olympics.
During a virtual interaction with Olympians, he had also announced that Rs 1 crore would be awarded to silver medal winners and Rs 75 lakh to those winning bronze medals.
In January 2025, Soren formally handed over allotment papers for 3,750 square feet plots at Harmu Residential Colony in Ranchi to Olympian hockey players Salima Tete and Nikki Pradhan.
The two players were honoured by the state government for bringing laurels to the state and the country through their achievements in hockey.
Fulfilling a long-standing promise, the state government recognised the contributions of the two players and enabled them to own homes in Ranchi.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet also discussed a proposal related to age relaxation in the Jharkhand Public Service Commission Civil Services Examination.
The commission has fixed August 2026 as the cut-off date for determining the minimum and maximum age limits.
The Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms had proposed August 2023 as the cut-off date for age relaxation.
However, candidates have been demanding that the cut-off date be fixed as August 2018. In view of the ongoing protests by students, the proposal was postponed and will be taken up at the next Cabinet meeting.
Notably, during the previous JPSC Civil Services Examination, the cut-off date for the age limit was August 2017.
Students are therefore demanding that the cut-off date for the forthcoming examination be set as August 2018 and have been staging protests over the issue.