NEW DELHI: Belying the hopes of sportspersons in an Olympic year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reduced the allocation of incentives for athletes by more than Rs 400 million while presenting the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 on Saturday.
The amount has been slashed from Rs 1.11 billion to Rs 700 million at a time when the Sports Ministry has been talking up the medal expectations from the 2020 Olympic Games, to be held in Tokyo between July 24 and August 9.