Chandigarh: From fresh policy to synthetic turf, sports day brings cheer to athletes

Tribune News Service

Deepankar Sharda

Chandigarh, August 29

After a wait of decades, the UT Administration finally released its own sports policy today, on the occasion of National Sports Day, and dedicated the city’s first athletics synthetic turf to local sportspersons.

The new sports policy has opened the doors for sportspersons (to claim huge cash rewards) and corporate institutions (to showcase their interest in developing sports). The newly laid turf at the Sector 7 Sports Complex will allow the local athletes to practise in the city, leaving behind the hassle of travelling to Panchkula or Patiala.

The project to lay an all-weather synthetic track made of polyurethane was put on paper in 2012. However, nothing materialised for a year. In 2013, the film, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, gave a push to the project.

UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit inaugurated the turf and unveiled the sports policy. Purohit hailed it as the best policy in the nation. However, the outcome of the policy will be assessed later, as it is expected to put a financial burden on the Sports Department.

He commended Director (Sports) Sorabh Kumar Arora for bringing out the policy, which had been in the making since 2015.

“The policy includes a rolling gradation system for sportspersons based on their achievements, a sports injury and rehabilitation centre, a corpus of Rs 50 crore for differently abled athletes, and a dedicated corpus of Rs 25 lakh for promising children from peripheral areas and economically weaker sections (EWS),” noted Purohit.

Bringing back city athletes?

The authorities firmly believe that the policy will spur many decorated sportspersons — who left Chandigarh to play for other states for better facilities — to return to the city. Though there is no specific mention of government jobs for such achievers in the policy, the highest of Rs 6 crore (for an Olympics gold medallist) and other categories of cash rewards are likely to prompt sportspersons to return. The policy also covers cash prizes at the inter-school level and talent identification schemes in Chandigarh — which the department has implemented by running state-run academies, even though local players find it hard to get selected to such academies.

The policy ushers in several progressive measures, including a substantial increase in the scholarship budget for sportspersons, cash rewards for coaches in 19 categories and an innovative talent hunt programme meant for children as young as six.

“The days to come will see a rise in the number of coaches. With this policy, we are moving towards the development of local sportspersons,” said UT Adviser Dharam Pal.

Policy highlights:

The department will explore various instruments of advertisement, such as unipoles, digital screens, hoardings, etc, on the premises of the sports complexes. A pre-defined set of rules and norms will be formulated in this regard.

To identify sporting potential among school children, competitions will be held annually under the talent hunt programme for the age groups of 6-9 years, 9-11 years and 11-13 years. Dedicated camps will be held under the supervision of DSO once in every two months.

Jobs to sportspersons under the sports quota will be given as per instructions issued by Department of Personnel & Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Government of India, from time to time.

The Department will felicitate special/unique individuals chosen from players, coaches, referees/umpires, physical education teachers, differently abled sportspersons with the Administrator’s Award for accomplishment at the global level.

The coaches would be provided regular training by exploring opportunities by organising inter-state/international exchange programmes, seminars and talks by the best of subject experts.

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