Govt urges assns to play positive role
LUCKNOW: The government on Tuesday appealed to all the state sports associations to play a positive role for the development of sports by sharing the burden like holding of camps, appointing coaches for training on their own.
As per the government, the associations can run their own training system at the stadiums by paying nominal charges alongside the regular training system being run by the government.
“It’s an open offer and any association can opt for this scheme. This would help the state nurture talented players for national and international levels,” an official of the sports directorate said on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.
The occasion was a joint meeting of almost all the sports associations and the UP Sports Directorate under the chairmanship of sports and youth welfare minister Chetan Chauhan.
The notable absentee from the meeting was Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, who had recently criticised the state government for not doing anything for the uplift of sports and sportspersons in the state.
In a positive gesture towards sports associations, Chauhan announced that a place will be allocated in Lucknow where all the sports associations can have their own offices. Besides offering other help to them, he also promised financial help of Rs 3 lakh to meet the office expenses.
“The government as well as sports associations should make joint efforts so that at least five players from the state can win Olympic medals in 2-3 years,” the minister said.
Earlier, UP Olympic Association’s secretary general Anandeshwar Pandey presented a sixpoint charter of demands which included construction of UP Olympic Bhawan, bid for the hosting of Youth National Games 2019-20, financial help of Rs 6 lakh to all sports associations, hike in financial grants to sports associations for conducting national and international events, good protein diet for hostel inmates, conduct of State Games once in two years and parity in diet money between the state players and hostel inmates.
Director, sports, RP Singh, who also happens to be the secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Hockey, spoke about welfare schemes for sportspersons and said the government would implement a pension scheme for veteran players.
“The government is making sincere efforts to promote sports and construction of multi-purpose halls in 67 districts across the state is an example of this,” he said.