Kaza (Himachal Pradesh) [India], January 16 (ANI): Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur inaugurated the 9th Women National Ice Hockey Championship-2022 at Ice Skating Rink, Kaza in Lahaul Spiti district on Sunday.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that it was for the first time that National Level Ice Hockey Competition and Development Camp was being held in the State.

"Ice hockey was one of the most popular winter sports in the world. This event would give an added boost to the tourism development in the region besides promoting ice hockey amongst the younger generation. This sport is quite popular in Uttrakhand, Ladakh, Kashmir and other Himalayan states," said Jai Ram Thakur as per a release.

"The state government has recently given approval to the Swaran Jayanti Sports Policy 2021 to give a boost to sports activities in the state. Under this policy, three per cent reservation would be provided to sportspersons in government jobs and the diet money received by the players would be doubled. Under the new sports policy, a prize money of Rs 3 crore would be given for winning a gold medal in Olympics, Winter Olympics or Para Olympics," he added.

He further said that the silver medalist will get Rs 2 crore and the bronze medalist will get Rs 1 crore. Along with this, Rs 15 lakh would be given for participating in the above games and Olympic, Asian, Commonwealth medal winners would be given pension and Arjuna Award, Dhyan Chand Award and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award holders would get a monthly salary,"First basic ice hockey ten days Coaching Camp was organized at Kaza in the year 2019 by State Youth Services and Sports Department, in collaboration with the Ladakh Women Ice Hockey Foundation. Apart from Spiti, children from Mandi and Kinnaur came to learn the nuances of ice hockey," said the Chief Minister.

"The state government has announced the High-Altitude Sports Center in Kaza with an estimated cost of Rs 16 crore. Skate boots have been provided by the Department of Youth Services and Sports for training the players at a cost of Rs 27 lakhs and ice rinks have been developed by the administration on a small scale in Lidang, Sagnam, Losar, Tabo, Hikmi," he added.

The first match of this event was played between Delhi and Himachal, in which Delhi won 4-0. In the second match, Chandigarh won over Telengana 1-0. (ANI)