Sports Minister Amar Kumar Bauri will visit the sports infrastructure of Patiala and Jalandhar in order to improve the local sports ambience. He is likely to visit the State around May 18 or 19 and return to the State capital by May 22.
“The Minister feels Jharkhand has the best infrastructure for sports which is dying for proper utilisation. Also, there are good players in most of the sports especially in hockey. A visit to Punjab will certainly help us knowing the process of managing the sports fraternity,” said Ajit Kumar, Additional Secretary to Amar Kumar Bauri on Thursday.
The schedule of the Minister covers visit to the day boarding centres, stadiums and sports academies in both the mentioned places of Punjab. “Our main aim is to see what all efforts the government of Punjab is taking to maintain the sports atmosphere. We are hopeful to apply similar steps in the existing sports infrastructure of our State,” said Ajit Kumar.
The Minister will be accompanied by Additional Secretary Ajit Kumar and Sports Director Anil Kumar during the visit.
“It will probably be a study tour for the Minister. After coming back, he wants to share the experiences of Punjab with the Central Coalfields limited (CCl) which is to sign MoU with the state government for preparing the much awaited Sports University at Mega Sports Complex, Khelgaon,” said Anil Kumar.
CCl as part of its two percent contribution for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has agreed to develop the University. Sources in the sports department maintained the state government is all set to start the Sports University with some sports disciplines from the ongoing financial year 2015-16.
“The singing of the MoU is pending. It may be approved by the cabinet at any point of time. Remaining ground work is almost done. CCl will prepare the course curriculum, mode of appointing teaching staffs and non-teachings staffs along with admission of students in the various courses,” said the Sports Director.
“The proposal of Sports University has been delaying since 2011. We are no more in mood to delay the modus operandi,” added the Sports Director.
Many private firms were ignored by the government prior to CCl. “We wanted a government department like CCl to come forward for undertaking the state government’s project related to Sports University,” informed sources.