CM lays foundation stone of football academy at Dharamsala

Shimla, December 4, 2015: Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, performed the foundation stone ceremony of Football academy, the first of its kind in Himachal Pradesh to be constructed with an outlay of rupees three crore at Zorawar stadium in Dharamsala today. The stadium will also have a athletic track. He said that the state government was focusing on providing state of art facilities to the players, adding that during last three years a sum of around Rs. 50 crore had been spent to provide modern sports facilities to the youth. He said that more than 121 play grounds were constructed in rural areas of the state under special schedule caste component plan by spending more than rupees 1.35 crore.

The Chief Minister said that synthetic athletic track had been constructed in Dharamsala and Hamirpur besides Astroturf field for hockey in Una be spending Rs.18 crore. An indoor stadium has been dedicated to the youth in Rohru completed with a cost of rupees 11 crore and similarly an outdoor stadium was coming up in Kinnaur.

Chief Minister said that during the last three years 35 players who had represented the country at National and International level were provided job. The players from the State  who were brought Gold medal and  had brought laurels to the country in Asian games at  Incheon in South Korea were awarded with an amount of Rs 20 lakh cash prize, those who won silver medal were given Rs 10 lakh each besides a sum of rupees six lakh in cash was given to those who had won bronze medal, he said.

Though Himachal is a hill state, still efforts were on to provide playfield in every school besides creating sports infrastructure, he said. The government has also increased four times, the cash amount, to those who achieve first three positions in National Youth festivals. The enhanced cash prize is now Rs 80,000 for those who achieve first position, which was Rs 20,000 earlier, to those who achieve second position the prize has been increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000 and to those who stand third the prize money has been enhanced from Rs 6 thousand to Rs 24,000.

MPP and Agriculture Minister, Shri Sujan Singh Pathania, Urban Development Minister, Shri Sudhir Sharma, and other officers of the department were also present on the occasion among others.