HP seeks national status for mountaineering and allied sports

Shimla, July, 10 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh Government has requested the Centre to accord national status to Mountaineering and Allied Sports Institution, Manali.

Speaking in a national seminar at New Delhi, state Irrigation and Public Health Minister Ravinder Singh Ravi that the building of the Mountaineering and Allied Sports Institution, located at Manali, was bigger than the IMF Delhi, HMI Darjeeling and JIM, Pahalgam.

It was the oldest institution of the country, however, no financial assistance has been provided to it till now, he added.

Mr Ravi urged the Centre to make it a national level institution besides providing financial assistance and also demanded a sum of Rs three crore for construction of sports climbing wall.

He also demanded relaxation in the conditions of Panchayat Youth Sports Campaign for making it more effective, saying that the panchayat should be recognized as a unit under the scheme as it was difficult to fulfill the conditions of the scheme in a hill state like Himachal.

The Minister said that a nine year long work project was prepared by the state for the scheme and Rs.69 crore would be spent on the same out of which the Centre would provide Rs 36.58 crore, while Rs 8.10 crore would be spent by state government.

A sum of Rs 5.32 crore would be spent under the scheme during the current financial year, he said and requested the centre to reduce the 10-year span of the scheme to five years.

Mr Ravi urged the Centre to develop modern sports facilities in the state to train young players and for holding international level tournaments.

He also demanded a special financial assistance for providing facilities of astroturf in three hockey grounds, teraflakes in four indoor halls, three athletics synthetic tracks, and developing five artificial ski grass slopes.

Union Minister of State for Sports M S Gill assured to provide full cooperation on issues raised by the state government besides creating necessary infrastructure for implementation of new schemes.

UNI AS HS VN1915