Game over for Punjab Sports Dept?

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 26

The newly-constituted Punjab Institute of Sports (PIS) is yet to spread its wings in the state, but the Sports Department has already been grounded by the Punjab government as a majority of its tasks have been assigned to the PIS.

The PIS, which is headed by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, was created with the idea of taking care of the various Center for Sports Excellence (CSE), to be created soon in the state in nine cities. But the PIS’s area of work has increased, and the Sports Department faces the prospect of becoming dysfunctional.

The Sports Department has been struggling hard due to the inadequate staff, including coaches, and it is now on the verge of extinction due to lackadaisical attitude of the government.

Only 10 coaches to run the show

The Sports Department is left with only 10 regular coaches in the entire state and has only 10 District Sports Officers (DSO) against the sanctioned strength of 22, one in each district. The 10 DSO are also on the verge of retirement by March next year. While 10 DSOs have the additional charges of a nearby district, four of them have the charge of three districts, in the newly created districts of Moga, Mansa, Fatehgarh Sahib and Fazilka.

Also, while the Sports Department has hired 80 coaches from Punjab Police, few of them have any coaching qualification recognised by any of the accredited sports bodies. Also, though the Sports Department had outsourced around 225 coaches a few years ago, and it is fighting a long court battle pertaining to their regularisation.

Loses sports wings in schools and colleges

Though the state government had initially claimed to have constituted PIS only to take care of its different CSEs at nine cities, sources in the government say that the PIS has already started the process of taking over the residential wings running in various schools and colleges in the state. While they will now be taking care of the disbursal of diet money to the day and residential wing players and would be maintaining the hostels, they would also conduct tournaments in the urban areas. Also, reports pertaining to the closure of the old sports wings and opening of the new ones under the aegis of PIS have been received from many places.

While a residential hockey wing running over the last 40 years at the Government School for Girls at Nehru Garden in Jalandhar was closed recently, it was replaced by another hockey wing opened recently at the Khalsa Senior Secondary School in the same city, to be taken care of by the PIS.

According to Sukhvir Grewal, Director training and Curriculum of PIS, there is a need to catch the talent young. “It takes around six to eight years to prepare a player of international level. Only when we do the churning at the grassroots level would we be able to see the cream at the top,” said Grewal.

Grewal said that the sports wings should be bought under the PIS to see Punjab winning laurels at the international level.

Loses authority to organise tournaments in urban cities

Taking yet another feather from the cap of the Sports Department, the PIS will soon take over the responsibility to organise various state and national level tournaments in urban areas. According to Grewal, while the Sports Department will take care of the maintenance of existing sports infrastructure including stadiums and hostels, the PIS will organise tournaments at these venues.

“Though we will be conducting tournaments in the urban areas, the Sports Department will promote and conduct games in the rural areas,” he said.

In contrast with the outstanding performance of the Haryana Sports Department consistently over several many years, the Punjab Sports Department, running under the aegis of the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal himself, is on the brink of a collapse.

Though the Punjab government has announced the constitution of the PIS for running CSEs in the state through the dedicated fund collected from the liquor cess, it seems to have paralysed the Sports Department, even before the PIS could take a final shape in the state.

Is Pargat Singh to take over as Director General of PIS?

If the sources are to be believed, former Indian hockey captain and MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment, Pargat Singh, will soon take over as the Director General of the PIS.

Directory Administration 

• Even though the Punjab government has given several roles to the PIS, it has failed to equip the newly-constituted sports body even after one year of its announcement. With absolutely no infrastructure of its own presently, the PIS has hired around 1,000 beds in the hostels of various educational institutes in the state in order to accommodate athletes. This includes 100 beds each at Kairon and Tarn Taran, 90 beds at Khalsa College for boys in Ludhiana and 50 beds each at the Government School for Girls at Nehru Garden in Jalandhar and the Government School at Mall Road in Amritsar. The government has so far appointed two directors of the PIS, including Air Commodore (Retd) R.S. Sodhi as director administration and Sukhvir Singh Grewal as Director Training and Curriculum.