CM hails MP Sports Fest for identifying rural players

Addressing the closing ceremony of the MP Sports Festival in Fatehabad, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Saturday said the MP Sports Festival was not just a sporting event but a large-scale health movement that encouraged young people to adopt an active and disciplined lifestyle.

Saini said the event strengthened the Central government’s Khelo India and Fit India campaigns at the grassroots level. He said the festival had become a people’s movement that helped identify sporting talent in rural areas and provided players with a pathway to national and international platforms.

Saini was welcomed at the event by Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Barala, who is the organiser of the festival. Players participating in the final matches took part in a march-past, after which the Chief Minister formally inaugurated the finals. He also watched the kabaddi final between teams from Sirsa and Fatehabad, while interacting with players.

Officials said more than 45,000 players from nine Assembly segments of the Sirsa Lok Sabha constituency had registered for the festival. Of these, 3,604 athletes qualified for the final rounds across different sports.

Highlighting government support for athletes, Saini said Haryana had created 550 posts under the Haryana Outstanding Sportsperson Service Rules, 2021, to provide secure government jobs to top players. So far, 231 sportspersons had been given government employment. He added that medal-winning athletes were eligible for cash awards of up to Rs 6 crore.

According to the CM, the state had awarded more than Rs 683 crore in cash incentives to over 16,418 athletes. He said 298 top-performing players received monthly honorariums, while more than 24,000 students had been given sports scholarships worth Rs 70 crore since 2014. Sports equipment had also been distributed to over 15,634 players under a state scheme.

Saini said the MP Sports Festival had helped place the Sirsa parliamentary constituency among the country’s top 10 Lok Sabha regions in sports participation. He said such events provided opportunities to talented youth who might otherwise lack exposure.

Outlining a long-term vision, Saini said Haryana aimed to emerge as a national and global sports hub, in line with PM Narendra Modi’s goal of making India a sporting power by the 2036 Olympics. He expressed confidence that athletes from Haryana would play a key role in winning medals for the country.

Calling Haryana a land of “strong soldiers, farmers and wrestlers,” Saini said the state’s athletes continued to raise India’s profile in international sports through hard work, discipline and determination.

He added that the state government had developed strong sports infrastructure and was running 1,472 sports nurseries across Haryana, where more than 37,000 young athletes were currently receiving training and financial support.