Chandigarh Sports Department to prepare schedule for championships

Deepankar Sharda

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 31

As the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) allows sports congregations from September 21, the UT Sports Department has decided to prepare a schedule to conduct local-level championships.

The department has not been able to hold any championship since the beginning of the current financial year due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

However, it was the first in the region to open sports complexes of non-body contact disciplines considering the interest of players.

In the new Unlock 4.0 guidelines, the MHA has allowed sports congregations from September 21 with a ceiling of 100 persons under the clause of wearing masks, social distancing, provision of thermal screening and availability of hand sanitisers.

“The department will plan a schedule for conducting championships after September 21. According to experts, the tricity is witnessing a spike in Covid-19 cases, which is not a good sign in terms of conducting any event. However, we can prepare a schedule to give mental benefit to players,” said Tejdeep Singh Saini, Director Sports, UT. “The current year has been a loss for players so far. We will try to streamline it by conducting championships for all age-groups, if situation allows. However, as of now, we are concentrating only on making a schedule after receiving the MHA orders,” Saini said.

This year, the department did not organise summer sports-wing camps for local trainees due to Covid-19 . This happened for the first time in the past two decades. High-altitude training camps for state-run academies were cancelled and summer tournaments put on hold. According to the expected schedule, the department will plan to organise cash award championships under ‘no-spectator’ condition. The department had recently received around Rs6 lakh, but only for purchasing sanitisation kits/articles.