Punjab's new sports policy proposes nurseries up to village

Chandigarh, July 31 (IANS) With decision to establish sports nurseries up to village level and provision of 2,360 coaches, Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer on Monday announced incentives for the sportsmen while releasing details of the new sports policy passed by the Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. 

In the new sports policy, the minister announced the gifts in the form of cash prizes, paving the way for awards for players as well as coaches and jobs for the players. 

Starting from the construction of sports nurseries and centres equipped with state-of-the-art facilities in every village of the state, the minister said keeping in mind all age groups and physical fitness, playgrounds will be established at the village level looking at the local needs. 

There will be a provision of one-time matching grant, a maximum of Rs 10 lakh per village, of 25 per cent of the total budget. 

There will be a battery test to evaluate the player's ability. 

Similarly, 1,000 cluster-level sports nurseries with better coaching, sports equipment and refreshments will be established. 

With allocation of Rs 25 lakh per nursery, there will be a total budget of Rs 250 crore. 

A district-level sports structure with 200 sports hostels in each district is to be established to prepare sportspersons for national-level competitions. 

There will be a total capacity of 5,000 players across the state with a budget of Rs 250 crore. 

The state-level centres equipped with state-of-the-art facilities are to be established. Apart from Jalandhar, Mahilpur, Mohali, Patiala, Ludhiana, Bathinda and Amritsar, the district-level structure is to be upgraded. 

Meet Hayer said the provision of 500 posts in the special cadre has been prepared for the best medal winning players, including 40 deputy directors, 92 senior coaches, 138 coaches and 230 junior coaches. 

He said compared to 2,017 coaches in Haryana, there are only 309 coaches in Punjab and as per the new sports policy there is a proposal of 2,360 coaches. 

According to the new policy, in addition to the gradation list of 35 sports, there will also be grading of sports included in the Olympics, Asian and Commonwealth Games. 

Arrangements will be made to give the gradation certificate online. 

Sports achievements will be given 30 per cent priority for recruitment of coaches. 

The minister said the Balbir Singh Senior Scholarship Scheme has been started for the first time to give monthly scholarship to the medal winners at the national level. 

Under this scheme, a scholarship of Rs 16,000 will be given to the national medalist at the senior level and a scholarship of Rs 12,000 to the national medalist at the junior level.