Imphal/Chandigarh, April 24:
Punjab Sports and Youth Services Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer on Monday has demanded hosting rights for Punjab in respect of the National Games/Khelo India Games during a chintan camp (National Conference) of the Sports Ministers of the States/UTs. The session was presided by Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.
Meet Hayer said that Punjab has not hosted any edition of National Games or Khelo India Games since 2001. He said that at one time, Punjab was top state in the country in sports but got lagged behind. Now, the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government is putting in its best efforts to make Punjab regain lost glory in sports and the opportunity to host a sports event of National level would give a huge boost to sporting culture in the State. The Punjab Government is coming up with the Sports Park under MGNREGA in the villages with gap funding being paid by the Sports Department, said Meet Hayer adding the Union Government should help with gap funding under Khelo India Scheme or any other scheme.
Coming to the problems faced by the players due to the injuries, the Minister said that an injury and rehabilitation centre must be set up for the players in the centre of excellence so as to make sure that they recuperate from the injuries. He cited the example of Olympic athlete Neeraj Chopra in this regard.
Meet Hayer further divulged that a pool should be made of the winning players of the Khelo India Games and these players must be sent to the good centres. The choicest players from the country should get a good platform for the Olympics, Commonwealth and the Asian Games.
