Over 3.5 crore spent in organizing annual sports competitions under the 'Khelo India' scheme in JK

Jammu, February 9: Over 3.5 crore was spent in organizing annual sports competitions under the 'Khelo India' scheme in Jammu and Kashmir in the last fiscal. This was said by JK Sports Minister Imran Raza Ansari in state Legislative Council on Friday.

While replying to a question of Congress MLC Mohammad Muzaffar Parray in the Legislative Council, JK Sports Minister Imran Raza Ansari informed that Rs 3.57 crore out of the Rs 6.06 crore received from the Centre was spent on organizing annual sports competitions under the 'Khelo India' scheme in the last year.

He further said that of the balance amount of over Rs 2.49 crore, more than Rs 1.13 crore stands utilized till date in the current 2017-18 financial year."Rs 6,06,87,000 was received by the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council during 2016-17 for the conduct of annual sports competition under Khelo India Scheme, out of which Rs 3,57,72,666 was utilized during the same financial year," he added.

Minister Ansari, in the end, said that Youth Affairs Ministry approved an amount of Rs 612 lakh for the 2017-18 fiscal for the promotion of football under the programme 'Let us play Football'.

BACKGROUND:

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the revamped Khelo India programme at a cost of Rs.1,756 crore for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20 in the month of September last year. This scheme aims at mainstreaming sport as a tool for individual development, community development, economic development and national development.

Some of the salient features of the Programme include:

• an unprecedented Pan Indian Sports Scholarship scheme, which would cover 1,000 most talented young athletes each year across select sports disciplines.

• Each athlete selected under the scheme shall receive an annual scholarship worth Rs. 5.00 lakh for 8 consecutive years.

• This is the first time ever that a long-term athlete development pathway would be made available to gifted and talented youngsters to excel in competitive sports and will create a pool of highly competitive athletes who can compete to win at the world stage.

• The Programme aims to promote 20 universities across the country as hubs of sporting excellence, which would enable talented sportspersons to pursue the dual pathway of education and competitive sports.

• The Programme also aims at creating an active population with a healthy life-style.

• The Programme would cover about 200 million children in the age group of 10-18 under a massive national physical fitness drive, which will not only measure the physical fitness of all children in the age group but also support their fitness-related activities.

Impact:

• The power of sport in promoting gender equity and social inclusiveness is also fully recognized and special measures are provided for to achieve these objectives.

• The programme also aims at engaging youth living in disturbed and deprived areas, in sporting activities, to wean them away from unproductive and disruptive activities and mainstream them in the nation-building process.

• The programme strives to raise the standards of competition, both at school and college level, to have maximum access to organized sports competitions.

• It also includes the use of latest user-friendly technology in all aspects of sports promotion such as use of mobile apps for the dissemination of sports training; National Sports Talent Search portal for talent identification; the interactive website for indigenous sports; GIS-based information system for locating and using sports infrastructure, etc.

• This programme strives to promote “Sports for All” as well as “Sports for Excellence.”