Haryana government working towards making Haryana a sports hub: Manohar Lal Khattar

“Sporting culture is a tradition in Haryana. It is in its soil. In Tokyo Olympics, athletes from Haryana won three of the total seven medals. In the last Paralympics, Haryana won six out of 19 medals and in the Asian wrestling championship, our athletes won a majority of medals. People from other states often ask how Haryana has done so well in sports. A delegation from Gujarat had come here for a fortnight to study our sports policies,” said Khattar.

The Chief Minister was speaking in Gurgaon at a promotional event of the fourth edition of Khelo India Youth Games 2021, which will be held from June 4 to June 13. More than 8,500 youth athletes are expected to take part in the games and events that will be held in Panchkula, Chandigarh, Ambala, Shahabad and Delhi.

“In the 2020 edition, Haryana had won 200 medal medals and finished second in the tally. I hope since we are hosts this time, Haryana tops the medal tally. We want to develop Haryana as a sports hub,” he said.

Khattar said that to improve infrastructure and achieve better results, the government had decided to conduct mapping to assess which sports are popular in specific regions of the state.

“In the last one year, Rs 526 crore has been spent on infrastructure. We are giving Rs 400 per day for dietary requirements to the players. Earlier, it was Rs 250 per day, but a need was felt to increase it. A state-of-the-art sports complex has been built in Panchkula. Haryana gives maximum cash prize money to medal-winning sportspersons. In direct recruitment, a provision of reservation under sports quota has been made for sportspersons for class A, B, C and D posts. Around 550 new posts have been created in the sports department and 156 players have been given government jobs,” he said.

Khattar added that the games was supposed to be held earlier, but were put on hold due to the onset of the pandemic. “We went through a painful period during Covid. We are still fighting it and have won the challenge to an extent. It is being said that a fourth wave [of Covid] could come. But, the fourth wave cannot harm us now. We are well prepared to deal with the situation in terms of health infrastructure and vaccines,” he said.

Sandeep Singh, Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs, Haryana, said, “When I was a young player, we were paid Rs 10 per day for diet and we had to manage all the meals in that. The quality of track suit was such that it could not be worn a second time. But, things have drastically improved now in terms of training and infrastructure.”

“I went to see an India vs Germany hockey match in 1996 and was inspired to pick up a hockey after watching the game, which changed my life. Similarly, I hope that the youth come in large numbers for these games and are inspired to take up sports,” he added.