Around 10,000 athletes will participate in the Khelo India youth games which are scheduled from February 5 to 14, 2021 in Haryana’s Panchkula. As many as 25 different types of sports will be organised in this mega-tourney, which indicates how grand a sports event it will be. Manohar Lal, the Chief Minister of Haryana, visited the venue of this event, Tau Devi Lal Stadium Panchkula on Saturday to have an insight into the preparations regarding the conduct of games. He said that 25 different sports would be incorporated under Khelo India Games. 20 such games are already being organized. Besides this, five regional games have also been added this time, which include Gatka of Punjab, Thang-Ta of Manipur, Kalaripayattu of Kerala, Malkhamb of Maharashtra, and Yogasan.
The amount of Rs. 250 crore will be spent on the development of necessary infrastructure for these games, of which Rs. 150 crore will be spent for infrastructure development and Rs. 100 crore will be spent on other equipment and facilities. All the preparations for the infrastructure being developed as per the requirement of all the sports would be completed by December 31. Entire arrangements are being made for the lodging and boarding, and transportation of the players. Along with Panchkula, these games would be held in Ambala, Shahabad, Chandigarh, and Delhi. The final matches of most of the games will start from February 8, which will be telecast live through the Star Sports channel.
Haryana is continuously progressing in sports and the state government is increasing the budget of sports every year. Where the budget of sports was Rs 151 crore in the year 2014-15, it has now increased to Rs 394 crore in 2021-22, which is more than double. Besides, 500 sports nurseries, which were closed due to COVID-19, have been revived to nurture sports talent among the budding sportspersons since childhood under the State Government’s ‘Catch them Young’ Policy.
In addition, 500 more sports nurseries will be developed. Apart from this, the sports stadiums are being renovated at the village level. Besides this, mapping is also being done by the government and where the number of sports stadiums is less, sports stadiums will be built as per the requirement. As a part of a new initiative, the State Government has given an amount of Rs 5 lakh in advance for the preparation of Olympic players. Besides this, Haryana is the only state that not only in the country but also in the world, is known for giving the highest amount to the Olympic winners as a reward.
Keeping in view the progress of Haryana in the field of sports, other provinces are also studying the sports policy of Haryana.
A Scientific Training and Rehabilitation Center is being set up in Panchkula to prepare the players mentally and physically for sports. Apart from this, such centres will also be set up in Karnal, Hisar, Rohtak, and Gurugram.