Going by the adage of ‘catch them young’, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday gave in-principle approval to the introduction of ‘sports’ period in all Government schools from Class-I. Earlier, the sports period was introduced from Class-VI.
“It is important to catch them young,” said the Chief Minister while reviewing the functioning of the state Sports Department.
He said that the schools, colleges and universities should pro-actively intensify their efforts to promote sports in their institutions while suggesting the Sports Department should hire world-class coaches to train budding players in various sports.
At the same time, the Chief Minister directed the Sports Department to work out the modalities for a health insurance schemes for sports veterans.
Noting that it was the government’s duty to fend for sports veterans who had done the state proud during their sporting careers, the Chief Minister asked the Sports Department to work out a scheme to extend financial aid for them.
Pointing out that several such veterans were seen to be in the grip of ill-health or age-related complications, he asked the Secretary Sports to chalk out modalities for a health insurance scheme to ensure the best health and medical care for these veterans.
He also suggested increase in the existing pension for sportspersons.
The Chief Minister also asked the officials to relook the existing structure of cash awards to the sportspersons who win medals in national and international games, such as Olympics, Commonwealth, Asiad etc, in order to boost the morale of the sportspersons.
During the meeting, the Sports Secretary JM Balamurugam gave a detailed presentation on the Department’s activities and achievements and apprised the Chief Minister that the Department would soon come up with a comprehensive plan for setting up the state-of-the-art Sports University at Patiala, which was approved in the budget for the year 2018-19.
To further promote the sports culture in the state, Balamurugam also sought Chief Minister’s cooperation to issue directives to all the Public Sector Undertakings, Boards, and Corporations to adopt a particular sports discipline to attract youth.
He also emphasized the need to involve Deputy Commissioners, who were also the presidents of District Olympic Associations, in promoting sports in a big way while citing the example of Sri Muktsar Sahib DC who recently organized a ‘marathon-2018’ at Gidderbaha to inculcate sports spirit amongst the youth.
The Sports Secretary mooted a proposal to launch a massive media campaign to popularize the concept of sports amongst the youth through a ‘Khelo Punjab Abhiyan’.
Referring to the Haryana model, he also called for government initiatives to promote Yoga in Punjab.