BHOPAL, 25 March 2005 — Madhya Pradesh Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Om Prakash Dhurve announced in the State Assembly yesterday that his department was working towards formulating a new sports policy.
The minister announced this while speaking in support of the budgetary demands of the department in the House. The minister said that the envisaged policy would have a clause that would make it mandatory for developers of new residential colonies and educational institutions to have sports amenities.
The Rs 89.1 million budget includes allotment under a Tribal sub plan too. He said that sports would now be linked to employment.
Earlier during the discussion on demands, Congress MLA Arif Aqueel bemoaned pitiable state hockey had been reduced to. He demanded the restoration of synthetic astro-turf at the Aishbagh hockey stadium and repair work at Bab-e-Aali cricket stadium.
Arif Aqueel and Naresh Diwakar demanded that a sports person be appointed to the post of director, sports rather than an IAS or IPS officer. Dr. Govind Singh said that the state government had not fulfilled its promise of appointing sports instructors at all villages with a population of 5000 or more. He said that the budget allotted to the department was a pittance and it was a reflection of the importance the present government accorded to sports.
Narayan Tripathi of the Samajwadi Party said that sports must be promoted at the school level and demanded that encroachments on sports infrastructure be cleared forthwith.
