Multipurpose sports center to come up in every block of border districts of Punjab

Chandigarh, September 27, 2014: Acceding to the demand of the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to channelise the unbounded energy of the youth of border districts of state through promotion of sports activity, the Union Minister of State for Sports Sarbnanda Sonowal today announced to set up multipurpose sports center in every block of the border districts of Ferozepur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur.  
Badal asked the Union Minister of State for Sports, who called on the Chief Minister at his residence this evening, to generously help the state in combating the curse of drugs by funding Sports projects and related infra structure especially in the border districts of the state. He apprised the Union Minister that the state government was already making strenuous efforts for promoting sports to check drug addiction in the state but this daunting task could not be accomplished without adequate support of the Union government. Badal said that there was a lot of scope for the promotion of the sports activity in the border districts of the state for which the Union government must pay some attention.
Responding to the issue, Sonowal apprised the Chief Minister that the Union government would set up a multipurpose sports center in each block of the border district at a cost of Rs 1.75 crore over an area of seven acres. He asked the Chief Minister to send the requisite proposal for these centers so that work on them could be started in a phase wise manner. The Union Minister also assured Badal that the Union government was not averse to the idea of setting up such centers even in the other blocks of the state.
Flagging up another issue, the Chief Minister asked Sonowal to establish Center of Excellence in Hockey at Jalandhar and that of Football in Mahilpur (Hoshiarpur), as both these places have produced several renowned players of these games and were known as the nurseries of Hockey and Football players.  Badal said that with the setting up of these centers of excellence both Hockey and Football would get a major fillip, which would be very helpful for the country in making a mark in both these games.
The Chief Minister also sought Sonowal's personal attention for the early starting of the SAI Regional Center at Zirakpur over an area of 20 acres, for which the land has already been transferred to the Ministry of Sports. Similarly, Badal also urged the Union Minister to expedite the process of releasing the pending second installment of Indoor Hall at Tarn Taran as an amount of Rs 2 crore has already been spent on it.
Likewise, the Chief Minister also asked the Union Minister to depute some foreign coaches to the state so that world class training facilities could be provided to the budding players of the region.
The Union Minister assured Badal that the Ministry would look into all these issues sympathetically. He also said that the GoI would soon deploy best foreign coaches to the state for imparting training to the budding Players so that they could excel in sports.
 Prominent amongst other present on the occasion included Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister KJS Cheema.
The Union Sport Minister was accompanied by Joint Secretary Onkave Kedia, Joint Secretary LK Gupta, Director General Nehru Yuva Kendra Dr Prabha Kant, Director Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development Dr. Latha Pillai, Director SAI Chandigarh Sanjeev Sharma and his OSD HK Sharma.
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