This will hit Indian contingent’s preparations for the two major upcoming sporting events — Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project Khelo India has been the main gainer by getting additional Rs 170 crore in the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s budget proposal presented on Thursday.
Incidentally, the budget proposal came just few hours after Modi inaugurated the first-ever Khelo India School Games on Wednesday. The programme, which focusses on the revival of sports at the grassroot level, will get a total of Rs 520.09 crore.
The overall budget, however, has only seen a marginal increase of Rs 88 crore, if Rs 170 crore for Khelo India is excluded from the overall Rs 258 crore increase in this budget. Sports Authority of India (SAI) stands to lose big after its funding has been reduced by Rs 66 crore to Rs 429.56 crore for the fiscal year 2018-2019.
This will hit Indian contingent’s preparations for the two major upcoming sporting events — Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
The ongoing camps under the aegis of SAI are surely going to get affected by the proposal. In other words, budget has focussed more on rewards for sportspersons and assistance to National Sports Federations.
National Service Scheme (NSS) will see a marginal increase of Rs 6.5 crore, getting Rs 144 crore from earlier Rs 137.50 crore.
Similarly, the contribution to the National Sports Development (NSD) fund has been reduced to Rs 2 crore from the earlier Rs 5 crore.
Also, only Rs 50 lakh has been allocated for identifying and nurturing sports talent in the country.
Up and Down
- Hike: Rs 258.2 crore additional funds for sports ministry for 2018-19, up from Rs1938.16 crore last year to Rs2196.36 crore
- Cut: Rs66.17 crore less for Sports Authority of India, down from Rs495.73 last year to Rs429.56 crore for this year
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