Top boxers’ two-year wait for pension to get over this month

Top boxers’ two-year wait for pension to get over this month

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The sports ministry has informed that some of the top boxers of India will get their pensions, which have been due since 2017, from this month. The top Indian boxers like national observer Akhil Kumar and former Asian Champion M Suranjoy Singh have been waiting for pensions for last two years.

According to a sports ministry official, the process of getting funds for the pensions is now over and the money will be released this month itself. This means, the top boxers, who are waiting for their pensions from 2017, will start getting the money from this month. 

“The Ministry had to give a corpus of Rs 5 crore to LIC, which was to release the pension to these boxers. The funds were awaited from the finance ministry and the whole process was completed only last month. But March being the end of the financial year, we were advised by the finance ministry to release the money only this month,” the official told PTI.

“The money is now in place and the LIC will start the disbursement this month. There are other boxers too apart from these two, who are entitled to pension. All of them will get their dues this month.”

As per the sports ministry, a medal winner from the Olympics and Paralympics is entitled to get Rs 20,000 per month. Rs 16,000 each for the gold medal winners at the World Cups and World Championships while gold-medallists from CWG and Asian Games are eligible to get Rs 14,000 per month. The athletes, who are above 30 years and have retired representing in the sport, can apply for the pension.

“There are others as well. Hopefully, they will get their dues. Whenever we have approached the ministry with a query on this, we have been told that those entitled will be duly paid their arrears too, so there is nothing to worry,” a Boxing Federation of India official said.

Akhil and Suranjoy are two of the top names on the list of the Indian boxers who have been waiting for their money. Akhil had won a Commonwealth Games gold in 2006 and he is the current national observer for the sport. On the other hand, Suranjoy, a former Asian Champion, came to the limelight after winning eight back-to-back international medals. However, his career was cut short due to a knee injury.

“I applied in 2017, have sent reminders as well but every time the response has been ‘it’s in process’. I don’t know what’s the problem,” Suranjoy told PTI.

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