The decision was taken by the ministry after meeting the officials of sports federations and chef-de-mission of Rio Olympics, Rakesh Gupta, in the Capital on Monday.
The sports ministry has decided to offer an "out of pocket" allowance of Rs 1 lakh per month to each Indian athlete who has secured a berth for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The bonus will be available even to those athletes who were receiving funds under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) and National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) till now. This has been done keeping in mind the various requirements of the athletes that will help them focus only on their preparations.
With the Games scheduled to be held from August 5, all 89 athletes who have so far qualified from India would be receiving a total of Rs 3 lakh each for the next three months. The funding would cost the ministry in excess of Rs 2.6 crore.
The decision was taken by the ministry after meeting the officials of sports federations and chef-de-mission of Rio Olympics, Rakesh Gupta, in the Capital on Monday.
"The ministry has decided to support the Rio-bound athletes in every possible way to brighten their medal chances. The athletes can utilise this amount according to their own training programme and the amount will be directly credit to their bank account every month starting May 10," a federation official told dna.
Archers to stay outside Village
Meanwhile, the Rio Games Organising Committee (OC) has also accepted the request of the Archery Association of India (AAI) to allow Indian archers stay outside the Games Village. The archers will stay in a hotel that is nearby to their competition venue.
Keeping in mind that the distance of the archery venue – Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí – is more than an hour from the Olympic Park, the AAI had requested the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to make a request to organisers.
The IOA, in turn, informed the OC about the archers' request. The OC, after discussing the matter with the International Olympic Council (IOC) and reviewing the safety and security of athletes, allowed the same.
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