ITANAGAR, Jun 20: Youth Affairs & Sports Minister Mama Natung informed that Arunachal Pradesh has made a bid to host the National Games in 2024, and that the state will host the Northeast Youth Festival in 2020 and the Khelo India Youth Games in 2022.
Natung said this during a coordination meeting he convened here with the department’s officers on Thursday. The department will shortly be starting work to meet the infrastructure requirements for the events.
Later, speaking to media persons, Natung said, “We will work on the basic needs of infrastructure to host all the games in the state, and the central government is ready to provide the funding.”
He also informed that the major projects of building stadiums in the state have been halted because of the change in the government and de-linking of the schemes.
“The state government has apprised the Centre of the matter. The fund for completing the stadiums will be provided, and the work will be completed at the earliest,” the minister said.
He informed that a team comprising officers from various government departments will be constituted for monitoring the activities related to the construction of the stadiums.
Natung also said the state government, “under the leadership of Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Union MoS (Independent) for Youth Affairs & Sports Kiren Rijiju,” is planning to set up a “national standard indoor stadium in the state.”
When asked about finding a permanent solution to the matter of China providing stapled visas to Arunachalee sportspersons, the minister said he did not have an in-depth understanding of the issue but would be pursuing the matter with the external affairs ministry.
Sports Authority of Arunachal (SAA) Chairman Bamang Tago said the SAA has allocated Rs 2.6 crore for sports associations participating at the national level. “Eighty percent of the fund is used only for participating at that level, and the remainder is disbursed as salaries,” he said.
“Earlier there were only nine sports associations in the state, but today there are 25 associations participating in national level events, and out of them, 14 are excelling,” he added.
Meanwhile, Youth Affairs & Sports Secretary Dani Sulu informed that the state government has initiated a policy to award cash prizes, on 29 August every year, to the players who win laurels in regional, state and national level events.
“We have been doing this and will continue, but it is not possible to fund every individual who represents the state and comes back in the middle of the year, as fund structure would then be misplaced. But we help individual sportspersons in every possible way we can,” he said.
The meeting also discussed various approaches to implement sports schemes effectively in the state.
