The five-day, 24th, All India Forest Sports Meet will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday at 4.00 pm at Swami Vivekananda Stadium in Kota here.
Addressing a press conference here, Forest Minister Mohammed Akbar said that Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Dr Harsh Vardhan, forest ministers from Bihar and Punjab, senior officials of forest department of different states and former International Cricket player V.V.S. Laxman will participate in the inaugural session.
“A total of 2400 players from across the 29 states and seven Union Territories will be participating in the event including participants from seven All India level Forest and Wild Life related Institutes”, Akbar said.
The events to be held are --athletics, archery, badminton, basketball, billiards, snooker, carrom, chess, cricket, cycling, football, golf, hockey, kabbadi, lawn tennis, shooting, squash, swimming and others,” he said
“All the preparation for event has been completed while around 230 officers and employees of the State have been trained to participate in the event, Akbar said.
Different committees have been constituted while sports associations will extend all technical services. All the events will be played on Raipur based grounds,” the Minister said.
“Cultural events will be held on themes of Chhattisgarh’s art and culture along with tourist spot details to be shared with the visiting teams,” he said.
“Last time , Chhattisgarh was runners-up but this time it hopes to be winner. The total budget is around Rs nine crore while the food, transportation and accommodation will cost around Rs 4-5 crores,” said C K Khetan, Additional Chief Secretary, Forest Department.