Our emphasis is to promote raw talent, Union Sports Minister Mandaviya

Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Mansukh Mandaviya has said that the Union government was focussing on expanding the country’s sports landscape and providing abundant opportunities for raw talent across the nation to excel.

Inaugurating a multi-sports complex and an international standard swimming pool in Dharwad on Saturday, the Union Minister said that the sports sector had opened up umpteen opportunities for youngsters to build their careers in the field of sports.  

The multi-sports complex project in which Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Prahlad Joshi took special interest, has been constructed with CSR funds worth ₹50 crore contributed by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and NMDC Ltd.

Mr. Mandaviya said that to enable students to perform at the international level, the government was giving emphasis to strengthening the sports infrastructure across the country.

Mr. Joshi said that although the project was initiated in 2018, it was delayed by three years because of issues pertaining to transfer of the land and finally after overcoming various several challenges, the project had been completed.

He hoped that the facility would be of great help to the young athletes from the region to groom themselves to win medals for the country at the 2036 Olympics.

He suggested the officials to constitute a committee to oversee regular maintenance of the sports facility and involve a non governmental organisation to ensure its proper upkeep. And he promised to sanction ₹25 lakh from his MPLAD funds to installing modern sports equipment at the complex.

Mr. Joshi also appealed to the Union Sports Minister to extend assistance for renovation of the hostel run by the Sports Authority of India in Dharwad.

Hubballi-Dharwad West MLA Arvind Bellad thanked Mr. Joshi for establishing the first-of-its-kind multi-sports complex in the region.

Unexpected rain

Unexpected rain in the evening not only disrupted the stage event but also the wrestling matches that were organised as part of the inauguration. As it rained heavily the dignitaries had to rush for cover, while hundreds of people who had gathered in the galleries to see the wrestling matches got drenched.