Punjab Govt seeks Rs 50 crores for National Games

CHANDIGARH, Dec 7: The Punjab Government has sought an assistance of Rs 50 crores to conduct the National Games to be organised by the Pu...

CHANDIGARH, Dec 7: The Punjab Government has sought an assistance of Rs 50 crores to conduct the National Games to be organised by the Punjab Olympic Association in 2000. In a communication to the Prime Minister Office Secretariat and Ministry of Human Resources, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has requested the Central Government to release grant of Rs 25 crores in 1998-99 and another amount of Rs 25 crores in 1999-2000. The total budget to conduct the National Games would be around Rs 150 crores.

Col Raminder Singh, Punjab Sports Director is pursing the matter with the Central Government. In addition, the Punjab Sports Department has already submitted its financial requirements to the Planning Department which is giving final touches to the planning outlay of the next financial year.

Col Raminder Singh said that the Punjab Sports Department in collaboration with the Punjab Olympic Association would work out a detailed and integrated conduct programme for the 2000 National Games. The Punjab Sports Director said that synthetic surfaces laid for the 1989 National Games which were cancelled, would need replacement as these have outlived their lives. A sum of Rs 3 crores would be required to import equipment. New disciplines have been added to the National Games. Competitions in about 26 disciplines would be conducted.

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Col Raminder said that survey of the existing infrastructure had already been done and requirement of Rs 41 crores had been projected to cover up all aspects of the Games. Besides the Central Government, the state government and the sponsors would be approached for the financial assistance to smoothly conduct the Games.

Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Chandigarh would be the venues of the Games. Ludhiana will be the main centre where opening and closing ceremonies would also be conducted.

Meanwhile, a meeting of all the concerned agencies would be convened soon to finalise the project.

Sandeep shines
Sandeep Mahajan’s knock of 65 runs helped Oriental Insurance Company (OIC) beat PACL by 50 runs in the ongoing Insurance companies cricket tournament being held at Gursagar cricket ground.

In another match, TCL defeated Punwire by 27 runs.

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Brief Scores: OIC: 192 in 25 overs (Sandeep Mahajan 65, Vipan Sharma 43, Dinesh Gupta 29, Ajay Sharma 4 for 28, Dinesh Khanna 2 for 37): PACL: 142 in 22.2 overs (Rajnish 43, Ajay Sharma 25, Ravi Goel 15, Hament Puri 3 for 20, Bhagwan 2 for 22).

TCL: 140 in 24.4 overs (Parveen 19, Sukha 19, Lakhbir 3 for 28, Harpreet 2 for 14); Punwire: 113 in 22.5 overs (K Vir Singh 34, Kamal Walia 16, Sangeet 4 for 29, Dheeraj 3 for 24).

Dev Samaj-36 win
Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector 36, got the `best’ march past trophy in the 51st Punjab University athletic meet which concluded at PU Campus, yesterday.