Manipur wants sports to be included in Concurrent list

Imphal, Oct 17 (UNI) Manipur has suggested the inclusion of sports and games in the concurrent list for promotion of sports in the country.

''India can not produce world class sportspersons if the the current trend continues. Sports is a state list. It should come under the concurrent list so that the Union government could be involved more efficiently in promotion of the sports'', said state sports minsiter N Biren here today.

Admitting that Union Sports minister M S Gill was doing something for the betterment of sports by effecting some changes in the selection of sportpersons and evolved some mechanism for the dope tests after the controversy of L Monika during the Beijing Olympics, but it was not enough to win medals in world class competitions, Biren said.

Manipur with its little resources and depending mostly on Central grants did well in the last two national games after ten per cent funds from all the government departments were taken and pumped into the preparation of the National Games. Manipur emerged National Games champions, held in Imphal, and bagged maximum medals in the Guwahati games.

Former India International centre forward Ksh Thoiba said fund crunch was a big hurdle for local talents as hockey is played with bamboo balls in Manipur's towns and villages. But that did not deter Thoiba and two others from Manipur to represent India.

Every club has an astro-turf in the European countries whereas in India only some states have international class astro turf.

Manipur was planning to build a basic sports centre consisting of a playground and an indoor hall in each block headquarters. Since 90 per cent of the geographical area of Manipur is hilly, the average cost of the Block Sports Centres would be around Rs 40 lakh, Biren said. The total cost for all 27 blocks would cost around Rs 10.80 crore. This could be taken up in a phased manner over a period of three to five years under the Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA) scheme.

Since the PYKKA scheme did not provide sufficient fund for the purpose, Manipur has urged the Centre for sufficient funds for successful implementation of the project.

He said the construction of District Sports Complexes at Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Tamenglong and Ukhrul were being taken up under Non-Lapsable Central Pool of resources (NLCPR). The Detailed Project Reports(DPR) of the four projects costing Rs. 103.5 crore were submitted to the Ministry of DoNER, but were not yet approved due to some technical problems. The State Government had requested the Ministry of department of north eastern region (DoNER) for approving those components of the projects, which were in order so that the works could be taken up immediately.

Another sports scheme under the Prime Minister's Package at Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, Imphal, received a set back after inauguration of the complex last year with the admission of first batch students.

The Ministry of DoNER had released Rs 5.81 crore as first installment. When the cost was revised at Rs 40.55 crore on account of cost escalation, the Ministry of DoNER did not accept the revised cost and insisted sticking to the earlier approved cost.

Now the state government admitted that it could not proceed the work due to the discrepancy, it had sought more funds to complete the project.

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