The Hindu : Sport : Ambitious scheme for rural youth on the anvil

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Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007
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Sport - Sports : General

Ambitious scheme for rural youth on the anvil

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Union Ministry for Sports and Youth Affairs has drawn up an ambitious project to provide easy access to sporting facilities to an estimated 500 million youth residing across the rural areas in the country.

Christened “Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan” (PYKKA), the scheme is to be implemented in a phased manner beginning 2007-08 and is expected to cover 2,50,000 village panchayats and 6,100 block panchayats when completed in 2016-17. Stating that universalisation of sports cannot be achieved without adequate thrust in rural areas, the PYKKA project report, circulated by the Ministry among State Governments, says that the scheme is to encourage and promote sports and games among rural youth by providing them access to basic infrastructure and equipment at the panchayat level.

It will also provide an opportunity for them to participate in sports competitions at the block and district levels, leading to further opportunities for the talented sportspersons to receive advanced training and exposure so as to participate and excel in the State, National and international tournaments.

The programme, which will cover all villages and block panchayats in the country in the long run, will have a modular approach based on perspective planning with adequate operational flexibility in project design taking into account existing facilities, local talents, popular games and local constraints.

The selection of village panchayats and block panchayats will be on the basis of their ability to mobilise tie-up matching amounts (i.e., equivalent to the grant amount) or more through own resources or from other sources and several other factors. A one-time capital grant of Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 5 lakhs for the development of sports infrastructure would be given to the selected village/block panchayat respectively.

Besides, an annual acquisition grant (Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 20,000), an annual operational grant (Rs. 12,000 and Rs. 24,000) and an annual competitions grant (Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 10,000) would also be given to the selected village and block panchayats for five years. Prize money to tune of Rs. 25,000, Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 5,000 would be given to those village panchayats securing the first three positions at the annual block level tournaments and Rs. 50,000, Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 10,000 to block panchayats securing the first three positions in the district-level tournaments.

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