No takers for stadium’s paid membership

The Sports Department has failed in its plan to generate revenue from the synthetic track for athletes as it has not earned even a single penny in the last six months. 

Six months ago, the department had decided to levy charges on individual athletes and organisations for using the track for organising events and film shoot. The department had prescribed different rates for different categories. But not even a single athlete or organisation has paid any fee. Around 3,000 people use this stadium every day for practising or exercising, but no one pays fee.

The stadium, first of its kind in the border area, was the brainchild of the then Union sports minister Manohar Singh Gill, an area resident, who wanted the local youth to shine in the international sports arena. Gill sanctioned grants worth Rs 7 crore for the stadium. 

The stadium is beneficial for hundreds of sportspersons who came here regularly for practice. 

District Sports Officer (DSO) Jasmeet Kaur said not even a single sportsperson came forward take the paid membership. Also no private party came to organise any function here, she said. The condition of the stadium is getting worsened and the department is yet to release funds for maintaining it. 

According to the DSO, Reliance organised a three-day sports meet in the stadium for which it had to pay Rs 75,000 per day as fee, but it gave nothing. When contacted, an official of the firm, requesting anonymity, said payment was made to an official, so the department must find out where the funds have gone.

Students to get training under STEM programme

The Education Department has signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MOU) with the ‘International Business Machine’ (IBM) to impart knowledge to government school students in four subjects, known as ‘STEM’. Under the scheme, 10,000 girls and 5,000 boys from Class VIII to Class XII of Tarn Taran and Amritsar would be imparted knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). 

A one-day orientation workshop was organised at Government Senior Secondary School, Tarn Taran, as a first step towards the scheme. As many as 12 heads from different government high/senior secondary schools, along with District Education Officer (Secondary) Satnam Singh Bath, participated in the workshop. 

Manoj Balachandran of the IBM, a Bangalore-based company, said students would be acquainted with technical skills in areas, such as cloud, cognitive, security, date science, etc.