Govt offers big money to sports events
LUCKNOW: Sports activities in Uttar Pradesh are going to get a further boost as the state government has decided to give huge financial support to those who conduct state, national and international events across the state.
The new provisions were made through a government order in view of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s announcements. Now, financial help of Rs 25 lakh would be given to those who hold an international event or world championship in the state. Since 1996, the government had earmarked a sum of Rs 5 lakh for this purpose.
There has also been a fivetime jump in the financial help for the conduct of Asian Championships in the state. Now, Rs 15 lakh would be provided against the previous amount of Rs 3 lakh. For a sub-junior national championship, one would get Rs 5 lakh. For junior and senior championships, the financial help would be Rs 7.50 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, respectively.
“If someone conducts all three championships together, the amount would be Rs 15 lakh,” states the government order.
“This new system will help sports and sportspersons grow in the state. It will allow different state associations to conduct championships even of international standards in the state,” Uttar Pradesh’s director sport RP Singh said on Friday.
“There was no change in the financial help to such events in the state since February 1996. I believe the new system will encourage sporting bodies conducting many events and help their own sportspersons grow to that level,” he said.
He, however, said as per the changes in the policy for financial help, now even the all-India standard championships would get Rs 1.50 lakh for the purpose as it was Rs 50,000 in the past.
“Even the state level championships would get financial help of Rs 50,000 whereas the earlier existing help was Rs 10,000 only,” said Singh, who is also secretary of Uttar Pradesh Hockey.
Financial help is available for all 34 Olympic sports as well cricket. “An advance of 25% would be given even before the conduct of the championship and the rest of the amount would be released only after the submission of utilization report by the hosting authority,” the GO reads.
“Besides the participants, the financial help would also cover coaches, managers, referees, doctors and even masseurs. In view of the limited availability of the funds, the help to the sporting bodies would be allocated on a first-cum-first served basis. It would be given to only those sporting bodies, which fulfill the eligibility criteria of the UP Sports Directorate,” it further stated.
Official permission from the director sports would be a must before conducting the event. The nomination of a representative of the sports directorate in the organizing committee would also be mandatory in order to keep an eye on proper utilization of financial help for the event.