The Delhi government today announced Rs 25 lakh award for teenaged cricketer Unmukt Chand, the captain of India's Under-19 cricket team which won the World Cup.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit announced the award in the Delhi Assembly while hailing his contribution in steering the the Indian team to win the U-19 World Cup in Australia last month.
"We will give him Rs 25 lakh as an appreciation for making all of us proud. He is a very talented cricketer and I am sure he will become one of the top cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and other greats," Dikshit said.
The House adopted a resolution congratulating Unmukt whose century in the finals helped India defeat the Aussies. "He played a significant role in helping the the Under-19 cricket team become world champions," Dikshit said.
Congratulating the cricketer, Leader of Opposition V K Malhotra raised the issue of St Stephen's College initially refusing him to promote him to second-year BA Programme course citing low attendance. However, the intervention of HRD MInister Kapil Sibal and Sports Minister Ajay Maken resulted in Delhi University allowing him to move to the second-year and complete his first -year exams in the forthcoming semesters.
"Equal importance should be given to academic excellence as well as sports excellence. Any sports person representing the country in international events should be treated as national duty. There should be a law for such provision," Malhotra said.
To this, Dikshit said Delhi University does not have come under jurisdiction of her government and BJP should allow Parliament to function and raise the demand there. Earlier, Unmukt called on Dikshit in her office at Delhi Secretariat.
He was accompanied by NSUI leaders Rohit Chaudhary and Ankit Sharma The Delhi Assembly also congratulated Olympics medal winners.
PTI
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