The visit of Director General of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Sandeep Pradhan to Arunachal Pradesh to assess the sports infrastructure of state comes at a crucial time. He is visiting the state just days after the conclusion of senior women’s national football championship at Pasighat in East Siang district. The championship drew some amount of criticism for poor condition of the playground which exposed the poor planning while constructing sports stadiums in the state.
SAI is planning to set up centre of excellence in boxing, weightlifting and martial arts in the state. These three centres of excellence is initiative of MoS (Independent charge) for sports and youth affairs Kiren Rijiju. Once established, they are expected to be nerve centre for producing talents in the field of boxing, weightlifting and martial arts. Hopefully the state will get Olympic champion from these centres. However the department of sports will have to ensure that fund meant for establishing centre of excellence is properly used. There should not be any compromise with the quality works. The establishment of world class centre of excellence will change the face of sports scenario in the state forever. The DG SAI should also inspect the ongoing sports infrastructure work in the state. They should provide proper technical input so that best quality sports infrastructure is created. The people will be hoping that his visit bears fruit and visible change is witnessed in the sports scenario of Arunachal Pradesh.