The Hindu : Sport : Minister's call for sports planning

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Saturday, Oct 28, 2006
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Sport - Sports : General

Minister's call for sports planning

Thiruvananthapuram: The overall development of sports and games in the State would materialise only if it was included in the planning process, the State Sports Minister, M. Vijayakumar has said.

Inaugurating the general body of the reconstituted Kerala Sports Council (KSC) here on Friday, the Minister said that it was a pity that sports never found mention in any of the approach papers prepared in connection with the finalisation of the 11th Five Year Plan.

"We live in an era of development. But unfortunately, sport has failed time and again to get the required attention from the planning people. This is why the annual allocation for the KSC (pegged at Rs. 7.50 crore) in the State budget remains so meagre even today."

Mr. Vijayakumar, however, said the Government was making earnest efforts to bring about a sea change to the existing conditions. The sports super bumper lottery, which is to be launched on November 14, was one such attempt.

Estimated revenue

He said the Sports Department was hopeful of garnering a minimum of Rs. 100 crore from the lottery with the help of the student and sports communities, panchayats, government employees and non- resident Keralites. "This would be utilised only for the sports promotion projects especially in developing basic infrastructure."

The Minister said the Government would also announce a sports policy in due course. "It is with this purpose in mind, that we have decided to constitute a commission to study the present-day Kerala sports scene. The commission will be appointed soon and would be asked to complete its work within a specified time-frame."

Efforts would also be made to link sports and games activities across the State to the Education department. "The wealth of talent available in the State are students. So, it is the need of the hour to link both the sectors."

The KSC president, T.P. Dasan, presided. Later, the meeting adopted the audited statement of accounts for 2005-06 and constituted four sub-committees to deal with the subjects of finance and general administration, technical, works and media and publicity. — Special Correspondent

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