Bhagwant Mann’s ambitious sports scheme: 12,500 Punjab villages to get playgrounds

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today announced his ambitious scheme of building playgrounds in all 12,500 villages of Punjab to encourage youth to take up sports.

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In the first phase, the playgrounds will be built in 3,083 villages. The reason, said Mann, for building sports infrastructure at ground level is to ensure that youth are gainfully engaged in sports, rather than taking to drugs.

This initiative is the next step in our ‘War on Drugs’ campaign, said Mann.

“We have to give them an alternative that channelises their energy in the right direction. Youth will take to sports if the sports facilities are available and will not fall for drugs. At present, three captains of three major sports teams — hockey (Harmanpreet Singh), cricket (Shubhman Singh) and football (Gurpreet Singh Sandhu) are Punjabis and they are emerging as youth icons. This is my big initiative to ensure that youth are gainfully engaged in productive activities,” said the Chief Minister, who also holds the charge of Sports Department.

He said that athletic tracks will be built, Astroturfs will be installed and national-level players will be asked to coach the youth.

“These playgrounds are being built in all villages and we intend setting up sports nurseries for a cluster of villages. The budget for these nurseries has been kept aside. These nurseries will also have hostels, messes and quarters for coaches. Depending on the popular sport of the area, a specific sport nursery will be built,” Mann added.

The Chief Minister further said that though most village Panchayats have offered the government their own land for making playgrounds, in many villages, NRIs, too, have come forward to offer land for free for the purpose.