New budget promises a lot to sports

By our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, Feb 7: A State of the Art Sports Academy med after the great Arju awardee Bhogeswar Baruah will be established at the Sarusajai Sports complex. Fince Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today proposed to establish the Bhogeswar Baruah State Sports Academy during delivering his budget speech.

“Equipped with latest sporting infrastructure, this Academy will have accommodation all facilities for our budding talents. I propose to allocate Rs.500 lakh in the current budget for this purpose,” said Sarma.

Reacting on this decision Bhogeswar Baruah said to the media that it’s a good news for us. At the same time the legendary athlete appealed to the government to make the academy one of the best in the country so that Assam could produce quality athletes utilizing this infrastructure.

Meanwhile in his budget speech Sarma also proposed few steps to upgrade the existing sports infrastructure and construction of new sports facilities in the different parts of the State.  Sarma said, “Guwahati is fast emerging as the sports capital of the country, courtesy a series of tiol and intertiol sports events that the city witnessed during the last few months. We have been successful in getting FIFA U-17 World Cup to Guwahati. It is indeed an honour to our State. On the crucial issue of sports infrastructure, we propose to adopt two pronged strategy strengthen the existing infrastructure, and build the new ones based on assessment. We also want to lay emphasis on coaching and exposures. I propose to start a new Department of Sports Medicine in Guwahati Medical College Hospital.”

For promotion of Sports and Youth Welfare among the tea tribes’ communities, “Chief Minster’s Cup Inter Garden Football Tourment” was recently organized where a total 446 Tea gardens from across the State participated. This will be organized in coming years as well. “To encourage the budding sporting talent, we also propose a state-of-the-art Football Academy in the months ahead.”.

Rudrasingha Sports Complex at Dispur will also be upgraded in the coming days by adding modern gym, swimming pool etc. Rs.200 lakh are allocated for this purpose.

On the other hand to keep the memory of the South Asian Games alive, a Theme Park in the me of Tikhar at Jalukbari will set up with an initial allocation of Rs.200 lakh for preparatory works.

Sarma also said,“ In the last budget, I had announced three new stadiums at Dibrugarh, Kamrup and Lakhimpur. As the Department has progressed in preparatory works,

“I allocate Rs.600 lakh for 2017-18. Once the progress of three stadiums is achieved, similar State of the Arts Complex will also be set up in other district Headquarters of the State in due course of time.”

Sarma also announced that Sports Talent Search Scholarship will be given to the students and players of the State for their outstanding performance in the sports competitions at State, tiol and Intertiol levels. Further, an amount of Rs. 50 lakh has been proposed initially for establishment of NCC Academy at Jorhat. The Academy will focus on the youth of the State for all round development and also encourage patriotic feeling through participation in NCC activities.