The union sports ministry has asked all state governments to identify suitable sites in every block for creation of sports infrastructure in order to help realize the goal set by the prime minister to make sports “a way of life,” Sarbananda Sonowal, union minister of state for sports and youth affairs, said here on Saturday.
Interacting with media persons here on Saturday, Sonowal also said that his ministry had set a goal of building a sports complex in each of the 6000-plus development blocks of the country under the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan in cooperation of the state governments as sports is a state subject. Each sports complex will be established at an estimated cost of Rs 1.60 crore, he added.
“The primary objective of this programme is to harness the country’s sports talent in rural areas and make India a major sporting hub of the world,” the minister said.
Sonowal also announced that his ministry would organise the first edition of Himalayan Region Sports Meet in Guwahati with teams from eight North-eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bhutan and Nepal taking part in it.
Moreover the Indian Olympic Association has conveyed its decision to hold the next South Asian Federation Games in Guwahati, with Sonowal saying that his ministry had sought a detail proposal from the IOA for this. Sonowal also announced that a five-day National Youth Festival would be held in Guwahati from January 8 with about 5000 delegates from across the country taking part in it.
