Sports facilities not being put to optimum use

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala/Una, June 2

Sports facilities at the district level are not being put to use, resulting in wastage of funds. The facilities at Una and Dharamsala are a clear illustration of the fact.

In Una, a swimming pool was constructed in the Indira Gandhi Stadium during the stint of the Congress, in power from 2003-07. More than Rs 1 crore was spent on construction of swimming pool. However, in the last more than 8 years now, the pool has not been put to use.

Sources here said the District Sports and Youth Welfare Department tried to outsource the management of swimming pool. However, even the private party could not operate it, allegedly due to some technical fault in the construction. Sources here said the swimming pool loses water very quickly after filling, due to which, the private firm that was handed over the operations of the pool also gave it up.

Officials in the Department of Sports and Youth Welfare, said they did not have funds to operate the swimming pool. Sportsmen in Una have demanded an inquiry into construction of the swimming pool. Recently, the Director Sports visited the area and sources here said he had asked the officials to prepare a proposal for making the swimming pool operational. Una also recently got a second astroturf hockey stadium. The stadium can host even international matches. However, while designing the stadium, the authorities did not construct any visitor’s gallery near the hockey stadium. The stadium also got damaged after the retaining wall alongside fell in the hockey stadium.

The Director Sports had ordered an inquiry into construction of the astroturf and collapse of the retaining wall. Deepak Thakur, an international hockey player from Una district, had raised questions regarding the quality of construction of the astroturf. Dharamsala got the first synthetic athletic track of Himachal about three years ago.