At Last sprinter Dutee Chand has been exposed by Odisha Government

Bhubaneswar:16/7/20: The Odisha Government has provided a total of Rs 4.09 crore as financial support to ace sprinter Dutee Chand since 2015, stated the Department of Sports and Youth Services today.

The statement came after the Sports department received several queries from media on financial support provided by the state government to Dutee Chand. The Department of Sports and Youth Services, in the statement, also highlighted all the support given to Dutee Chand regarding her training.

The following support has been given to Dutee Chand over the years for training and other related expenses and financial incentives

• Rs 3 crore as financial incentive for medals won at Asian Games 2018.
• Rs 30 Lakhs for training and financial support during 2015-19.
• Rs 50 Lakhs for training support for Tokyo Olympics (Released In two instalments on 02/08/2019 and 27/12/2019).
• The State government appointed Dutee Chand as Group-A level officer in Odisha Mining Corporation (A Gold Category PSU). She is currently drawing Gross salary of Rs 84,604 (June 2020 Salary) per month. She is not required to come to office so that she is able to concentrate full-time on training. Accordingly, since her appointment in OMC, no official work has been allotted to Ms Chand.
• OMC provided Rs 29 Lakhs to  Dutee Chand for Training and financial incentives.

The state Sports department further stated that the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS), Government of India may also be providing adequate support for the athlete based on performance.

Last week, Dutee had put up a post on social media with photos of the BMW car, but later deleted it. The post had a message in Odia “I want to sell my BMW car. If anyone wants to buy, contact me on messenger.”

Earlier this week, Dutee had told before media, “It was a difficult decision for me to put up that post… Had there been an Olympics, I would have been all set, but, as the Games have been postponed by a year, I am unable to support myself.”

She said that she later deleted the post following the advice of her manager after there were some offensive comments.

“Due to the ongoing pandemic, all completions have been cancelled. Sponsorships for Olympics are also no longer there. I have spent all my money and haven’t earned anything in the last few months. There will be no new sponsors either during this time so selling my car is the only option left,” Times Now had quoted her.