HP to host National Women Sports Festival in December

Shimla, Jul 24 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh will host the three-day National Women Sports Festival at Hamirpur in December.

About 1,200 women sportspersons from across the country will participate in the mega event in which competitions in Athletics, Badminton, Hockey and Table Tennis would be held, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said here today while reviewing the functioning of Youth Services and Sports Department (YSS).

The Chief Minister also announced that birthday of hockey wizard late Dhyan Chand, falling on August 20, would be celebrated as sports day and state-level hockey tournament would be organised in his memory.

To encourage sports activities in the state, Mr Dhumal said during the current year Rs 294.20 lakh would be spent on sports activities, Rs 71.50 lakh on youth activities, while Rs 502.50 lakh would be spent on development and strengthening of infrastructure.

He said to encourage sports activities, three per cent of Sports Budget had been kept for handicapped sports persons and a provision of Rs five lakh had been made this year.

The Chief Minister said the grant-in-aid had been revised and additional category had been added for providing Rs one lakh for National Medal winner association in individual category and Rs 75, 000 for teams qualifying for quarterfinals.

Likewise the prevalent rates of grants for state level sports associations for A, B and C categories sports events would be hiked from Rs 50,000, Rs 35,000 and Rs 25,000 to Rs 75,000, Rs 50,000 and Rs 35,000 respectively.

He said the grants for District Sports Association would be enhanced from Rs 5,000, Rs 3000 and Rs 2,000 to Rs 8,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,000 to A, B and C categories for organising district level tournament.

The Chief Minister said there was a vast potential of adventure sports in the state and activities like rock climbing, Para-gliding, winter sports and water sports. He said Western Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (WHMI), Manali, had trained 96,000 persons and generated revenue of Rs 63.53 lakh till date.

The Institute would incur an expenditure of Rs 262.15 lakh on promotion of such activities during this year, he added.

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