CHANDIGARH: To make Punjab a leading state of the country in sports, the new sports policy will prepare the players for international competitions at the grassroots level, honour the winners of the national competitions, give jobs to the players, and give awards to the coaches. It was disclosed by Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer in a press communiqué, after discussing the draft of the new sports policy with the experts' committee.
Meet Hayer said that under the directives of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to give top priority to the sports sector, the sports policy will emphasize that the players should be focused on preparing for international competitions. He said that recently, athlete Akshdeep Singh has been given a cash amount of Rs 5 lakh for the preparation for the Olympics. Giving cash to the players is also being made a part of the policy to prepare for other major international competitions in the future. He said that it is a major step to prepare the players for the competition, after winning the medal, everyone gives prizes and honours, but it is necessary to help prepare before the competition and boost their morale.
The Sports Minister said that the Hockey Olympian Balbir Singh Senior Scholarship Scheme has been started to give scholarships every month to the medal winners of national level senior and junior competitions. In the meeting, it was considered that its scope should be increased and the scholarship amount should also be increased. The players will be given job preference according to their medals in international competitions. An award for coaches will be started on the lines of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award given to players. Coaches preparing players at the lower level will not be neglected. In order to raise the level of sports competitions in the colleges-universities, inter-University sports competitions of the universities of the state will be conducted.
Meet Hayer further said that a committee of experts for sports policy has been formed under the guidelines for drawing up long-term plans for the players of Punjab. They are constantly discussing one point with experts by holding its meetings. A new sports policy will be released soon.
Prominent among others who were present in the meeting included Director Sports Amit Talwar, Dronacharya Awardee Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu, Vice Chancellor of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh Sports University Lt. General (Retd) JS Cheema, Deputy Director, SAI Lalit Lohani, Director Higher Education Paramjit Singh, Deputy Director (Colleges) Dr. Ashwani Bhalla, Deputy Director (Schools) Sunil Kumar and District Sports Officer Gurdeep Kaur.