Incentives for school sports

CHANDIGARH, May 29: The Ministry of Human Resource Development Department of Youth Affairs and Sports has more simlified its scheme to raise...

CHANDIGARH, May 29: The Ministry of Human Resource Development Department of Youth Affairs and Sports has more simlified its scheme to raise standard of sports at the school level and to encourage participation in inter-school competitions. The new scheme has been designed specifically to not only generate interest among school children but also to place greater emphasis on organisation of tournaments at various levels. The scheme has come in force from April 1 this year but a number of states and Union Territories have so far not sent their proposal.

According to the scheme each district would identify, apart from athletics, four other disciplines on the basis of their popularity, specialisation and tradition of the district.

Each district would organise tournaments in identified disciplines separately for boys and girls. The time schedule for district or state level would be determined by the concerned states as per the convenience of schools.

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Giving details of the scheme, Joint Director Sports, Chandigarh, JPS Sidhu, said that the best school team of each district in their identified disciplines would participate at the state-level meets.

The School Games Federation of India would organise the National-level Inter-state meet preferably in January each year. The best school team of each state would participate. The SGFI will receive financial assistance for the national meets.

Sidhu clarified that the scheme did not put any restriction on organising the inter-school meets in disciplines other than the identified ones.

However, only the identified disciplines would qualify for financial support under the scheme. For tournaments in other disciplines, the state governments or district administration may provide the financial assistance.A committee, under the chairmanship of District Collector, would organise the district level meets. District Education Officer, District Sports Officer, chief executive officer, zila parishad, two eminent sportspersons of the district and two representatives from district sports associations would be nominated on the committee by the District Collector as members.

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The DSO will be member secretary. The state-level committee will be headed by Secretary (Education)/Secretary Sports. The Sports Director will be the convener.

GRANT-IN-AID: The Department of Youth Affairs and Sports Government of India will give a grant of Rs 50,000 for each district for organising inter-school meets in identified disciplines. The grant will be placed at the disposal of the Director of Sports.

The States and Union Territories will also be given a grant of Rs 2 lakh each for organising the state-level meet and meeting the travel expenditure of sportspersons.

Prize Money: The winner state at the national level will be given a cash award of Rs One lakh and a rolling trophy to be named after one of the prominent sportspersons of the country.

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The state will also have a rolling trophy for the best performing district.

The trophy will be named after a sportsperson of the state. The state government will also give cash award to the best district. Similarly the rolling trophy will also be given for the best school in the district.