'With focus on Olympics, sports camps to be held in Gulmarg': Rijiju in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi, Mar 16: Stating that the central government's focus is to promote Olympics sports in India, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said that Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh have huge potential in providing talent in such disciplines to the country. While responding to the question during the 'Question Hour', he said, “We have now identified Gulmarg as a right place to organize national camps for Olympics from now on.”

 

 

 

He said, “Kashmir has amazing potential in football, they have performed exceedingly well at the national level. Football will be promoted as a priority. We will launch some more programs in Kashmir. Football will be our main agenda.” 40 small centres at the block level and 140 small Khelo India centres are already set up in J&K, he added.

 

 

The Minister said water sports were coming up in a big way across Jammu and Kashmir. "We will inaugurate water sports in Dale Lake this summer. Water sports have a great potential in Kashmir and we have had many potential and success stories in this area," he added.

 

 

The Minister also said, "My aim is to bring India in top 10 by the 2028 Olympics and to make it possible we have to create sports facilities at the ground level. Thus, we intend to start about 1,000 Khelo India Sports Centers across the country." He also argued that India has around 700 districts and this means that “we will have at least one centre per district, while some districts will have more”.

 

 

Further, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is implementing the Khelo India Scheme which provides for giving financial assistance to States/Union Territories for creation/upgradation of sports infrastructure, which is also used by Indian sportspersons and teams for training for international sports events including Olympics.

 

The National Sports Federations and Indian Olympic Association together have set their targets for achieving participation of the largest Indian contingent at the Olympics, which increases the probability of getting a higher medal tally.

 

Rijiju also mentioned that Rs 13.73 crore has been released to date for the promotion of sports among disabled sportspersons under one vertical of the Khelo India Scheme, namely, 'Promotion of sports among persons with disabilities'.

 

 

"'Sports' being a State subject, the responsibility of development of sports, including promotion of sports competitions for divyang persons, rests with the State / Union Territory Governments. Central Government supplements their efforts by bridging critical gaps. However, the Union Government has started a Central Sector Scheme, namely, Khelo India Scheme in the year 2016-17 and revamped it further with twelve verticals in 2017-18. Funds are allocated by the Union Government Scheme-wise, not State/Union Territory-wise," he said.

 

 

"Under one of the verticals of the Khelo India Scheme, namely, 'Promotion of sports among persons with disabilities' funds to the tune of Rs 13.73 crore have been released till date for promotion of sports among disabled sportspersons," Rijiju added.