The Hindu : Gram panchayats to get sports complexes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 06, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Gram panchayats to get sports complexes

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, FEB. 5. The State Government will establish a Rajiv Gandhi Sports and Cultural Complex in each of the 5,652 gram panchayats at a cost of Rs. one lakh each, the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, announced today.

Presenting the State Budget for 2004-05, Mr. Krishna said that last year the Government launched the Rajiv Yuka Shakti programme and this year the programme would be extended to all gram panchayats with the construction of sports and cultural complexes. While the gram panchayats would be requested to donate the land, the Government would provide modern sports facilities in the complex. Mr. Krishna proposed to provide Rs. 56 crore during the coming year for the purpose.

To encourage sporting talent in the rural areas, the Government planned to introduce annual district-level sports awards from the coming year, he said.

The budget proposed to introduce pre-recruitment training courses in the Police Training Colleges and the two Sainik Schools to enable the youth to take up a career in the Defence services. The Government proposed to set aside Rs. two crore for the purpose and rope in ex-servicemen to impart training. Mr. Krishna noted that in recent years the employment potential of the Indian armed forces had been underutilised by the youth in the State.

The Chief Minister proposed to introduce the Grameena Vidyuth Prathinidhi scheme to open up new avenues for employment for rural youth and involve them in the management of the power sector in their respective areas. The responsibility of meter reading, billing and collection, and attending to minor repairs would be entrusted to a youth from the gram panchayat concerned. He would be entitled to a specified percentage of the collection as remuneration. The scheme, introduced successfully on a pilot basis, would be extended to all gram panchayats, he said.

Mr. Krishna proposed to create employment on the public-private partnership model in various sectors. To create employment opportunities for rural youth, about 600 government-owned agriculture, horticulture, and sericulture farms, spread over 50,000 acres, would be offered on lease in economically viable parcels to enterprising unemployed youth, individually or in groups. Twenty-five per cent of such leases would be reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and backward classes. The unemployed youth would be given assistance under the existing government schemes and through the Karnataka Krishi Abhivrudhi Nigam, he added.

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