Both Punjab-Haryana have hockey Olympians & Arjuna awardees as their sports minister

With former Indian hockey captain & two-time MLA Pargat Singh getting a ministerial berth in the cabinet reshuffle in Punjab, both the neighbouring states and sporting powerhouses Punjab and Haryana have Olympians and Arjuna awardees as their sports minister.

Former Indian captain Sandeep Singh is already a sports minister in Haryana.
Sandeep, who is a first-time MLA from Pehowa, got a ministerial berth in the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government in the state. The hockey Olympian and Arjuna awardee is a BJP MLA.
Before entering the politics, Sandeep was a Deputy Superintendent of Police in Haryana and got the job under the sports quota. A bollywood biopic Soorma was made on Sandeep's life.

Pargat Singh, who was a director sports in Punjab and instrumental in revival of hockey in the state, joined the electoral politics in 2012 and became a first-time MLA on SAD ticket and later he switched over to Congress and again retained the Jalandhar Cantonment constituency in 2017.

Now with change of guard in Punjab and Charanjit Singh Channi replacing Captain
Amarinder Singh as the new chief minister, Pargat Singh was included in the 15-member cabinet.
Apart from Sports, he has also been given charge of school and higer education education and NRI affairs.

If Haryana send the maximum number of athletes in the Indian contingent for the recently held Tokyo Olympics , Punjab was second in the country as far as representation in the Tokyo-bound contingent was concerned.
India won the medal in the men's hockey after a gap of 41 years and more than half of the team - 10 out of 18 - were from Punjab.

Both the neighbouring states that considered to be the country's sports powerhouse have got Olympians taking care of sports portfolio.