West Bengal will have a sports university and an international standard stadium while every Assembly constituency is set to house a mini-indoor stadium, the state Budget announced today.
To promote athletics facilities, professional sports training/coaching and courses of sports science among youth, a new sports university will be set up, Finance minister Swapan Dasgupta said in his Budget speech.
“This university will play a stellar role in the improvement of sporting attainments in the state. For this purpose, I propose an allocation of Rs 150 crore,” said Mr Dasgupta.
He said the government will construct two stadiums in north Bengal ~ one of the two being of international standard, while the other will be an indoor facility, preferably at Siliguri. I propose an allocation of Rs 220 crore for this purpose,” he said.
To revive Bengal’s sports culture by promoting mass participation among youth, the government proposes to implement the Khelo India programme, under which mini-indoor stadiums will be set up in all Assembly Constituencies. Each of the mini-stadiums will entail an expenditure of Rs 5 crore. Around 100 such stadiums are supposed to be built in this financial year.
“Our government will also renovate existing stadiums in different districts,” Mr Dasgupta said, adding, “Rs 100 crore has been allocated for this purpose in the current fiscal.”
Financial assistance of Rs one crore will be provided for sports clubs who will participate in national sports events.
To encourage participation of the youth in international sports and events, the Budget proposes to reward medal winners by offering them posts of the rank Inspectors up to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police depending on the nature of the event. “A policy regarding this is being drawn up. A corpus of Rs 50 crore will be created for giving prize money to winners in different international and national sports events,” he added.