A conference of State Ministers and Secretaries of Youth Affairs and Sports was held here today under the chairmanship of Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), for Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Vijay Goel. Other dignitaries who participated in the conference included Lt. Governor of Andaman Nicobar Island Shri Jagdish Mukhi, Union Ministers Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Shri Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Ministers for Youth Affairs and Sports of various State Governments, Secretaries of the Department of Sports and Department of Youth Affairs, Principal Secretaries and the State Secretaries.
The Conference dwelled on issues like need for broad basing of Sports and achieving excellence in Sports through development of basic Sports facilities at grassroots levels, putting in place a robust system for identification of Sporting talent, and encouraging mass participation through annual Sports competitions. Shri Vijay Goel informed the participants about the newly launched scheme of Khelo India which addresses these issues. He also informed that the Ministry will be launching a National Sports Talent Search Portal which will enable budding sportspersons from the entire country to stake a claim to help and support to further their sporting dreams by feeding essential data about them in the portal. Issues like making Sports Federations more accountable for results through rigorous application of the Sports Code and transferring the subject ‘Sports’ from the State List to the Concurrent List of the were also discussed.He also stressed the need for expanding the web of Sports science support to athletes by setting up a Sports science centre in at least one University in each State/UT. Shri Vijay Goel sought support of the States in these endeavours. Representatives from States and UTs also raised their issues.
It was almost unanimously agreed that in order to develop Sports and achieve excellence, a more focussed approach was required. Every State and UT indicated a few Sports disciplines on which it would focus, based on their strengths in such Sports disciplines in terms of infrastructure, tradition, interest, etc. It was felt that availability of these information would help the Department of Sports to plan location of sports academies, creation of infrastructure, organisation of competitions, etc. Several States/UTs requested for more funds from the Centre for development of Sports. Shri Vijay Goel informed the Conference that he has already met the Union Finance Minister and requested him for higher budgetary allocation to Sports. However, Shri Vijay Goel emphasised that the reason for meagre allocation for Sports is because it is in the State List.
The representatives from the State Governments also gave some useful suggestions including mapping of youth hostels, generating data base of all youth hostels viz. youth hostels, student hostels, sports hostels etc., development of entrepreneurship amongst youth, setting up adventure academies, representation of youth from Meghalaya and Manipur in International Youth Exchange Programmes, Deputing District Youth Coordinators in each district, better coordination between youth organizations and the State Governments, more focused approach in addressing the problem of drug abuse in certain states, organization of sanskriti mahakumbh at district level, simplifying the process of registration of youth clubs by the States, allotment of space at reasonable rent to NYKS for rendering better quality service to the youth in the states, listing of state programmes and schemes so that the same could be collated and printed in booklet form for propagating the same through NYKS youth members for the benefit of the States, involvement of youth in swachh bharat programme, developing the competencies of persons working with youth were some of the suggestions made in the conference.
Secretary, Sports, Shri Rajiv Yadav said that in order to meet the requirement of coaches, the capacity of Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports (NSNIS), Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education (LNIPE) and Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education (LNCPE) may be increased if the same is projected by States. Director General, Sports Authority of India, Shri Injeti Srinivas, would formulate guidelines for skill upgradation programme courses for the existing coaches. He also stated that the requirement of foreign coaches by States would be looked into by the Ministry. He emphasized that it was very important to converge the efforts of States, the Centre, National Sports Federations, NGOs, etc. It was also suggested that the Sports nursery model of Haryana and the Khelmahakumbh of Gujarat can be adopted. He urged all States to protect playfields in their territories.
Shri Vijay Goel Minister of State (Independent Charge) Youth Affairs & Sport sought the support of States in respect of:
(a) Each state may forward the data of existing playgrounds, budget allocation of sports for the current financial years and photographs of the major sports infrastructure available in the States.
(b)Names of the sports persons to be considered for providing assistance under TOP Scheme may be forwarded immediately.
(c) The details of such sports stadiums/complex created by the States which can be handed over to Central Government for running and maintenance, may be forwarded to the Ministry if States are unable to run and maintain them due to lack of funds or technical expertise.
(d) The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports may consider to setup Centers of Excellence in some of the Universities, where adequate sports infrastructure are available.
(e) Proposals of setting up sports academies in SAI centres under PPP mode can also be considered.
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