Chief Minister Hemant Soren finally gave a nod to host the Second Junior South Asian Federation (SAF) Athletics Championships, scheduled at Ranchi on September 28 and 29. The decision was disclosed during the closing ceremony of the National Sports Day celebrations on Thursday.
On the occasion, Sports Minister Geetashree Oraon informed that they were putting their best efforts to host this Rs 2 crores budget international fame sports event here. The file bearing the report of SAF games was forwarded to the CM on August 26 after the Sports department had given consent of hosting it. On August 14, the Sports Minister had inspected Khelgaon (Hotwar) premises to review facilities with regard to manage the participating eight Asian countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Sri lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Nepal with 500 athletes and around 200 technical delegates.
“By next National Sports Day, we will grant government jobs to the Young Sports Achievers of the state. Also, we seek to connect rural players with better facilities at their nearby stadiums made at panchayat, block and district,” said the CM.
Adding more on this stadium development, Oraon said, “Our department shall improve the sports stadiums providing superior facilities in the rural areas so that deserving players are identified and brought to the state capital.” “We will pay the revised sports felicitation amount summing around Rs 33, 98,400 to 229 players on this November 15, marked as State’s Foundation Day,” Oraon added while accepting that state sports felicitation amount is comparatively low.
To mark this August 29 known as National Sports Day in the memory of Arjuna awardee Footballer Major Dhyan Chand, hockey matches between the local residential centres for both boys and girls were organized since August 26. Sports Authority of India (SAI) Ranchi Centre Boys defeated Simdega Residential Centre boys with 1-0 goal. Whereas, SAI Ranchi centre girls bet Bariatu residential centre girls with 5-1 goals respectively.
A cheque of Rs 1 lakh was given to these winners and Rs 75,000 to the runner up teams by CM Soren on this occasion. Wrestlers Namita Kumari and Manish Kumar along with Taekwondo players Aman Kumar and Mani Bhusan Prasad were also awarded cash prizes of Rs 18,000 each by CM Soren. State Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Secretary Vandana Dadel said that the government is managing the obstacles in the State Sports Policies.
Organized by this concerned department, this year’s National Sports Day was celebrated beginning with cross country of various sports units players from Albert Ekka Chowk to Shaheed Birsa Munda Football Stadium in the morning. Football matches between boys of Jharkhand 11 team and Tata Football Academy were held followed with a yoga presentation by Ranchi Yoga Culture members ending with final hockey matches between the residential centres and local traditional based Cultural Programmes in front of CM and Sports Minister accompanied by State Administration officials.