Chandigarh Sports Department to prepare schedule for championships

Deepankar Sharda

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.