ITANAGAR, Sept 12 -�Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu today called on Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Sports Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore at Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi and pleaded him for development of adventure sports in Arunachal and for adopting an integrated approach to augment sports infrastructure in the State.
Further, he called for the need of a multi sports stadium at Itanagar and Residential Academy in the State considering the huge untapped potential and natural talent for sports activities amongst the locals in the State.
�Multi-Sports Stadium and Residential Academy, if considered by the Ministry, will change the face of sports in the State,� Khandu said.
The Union Minister was in complete endorsement of the need to encourage adventure sports in the State given the picturesque locales and the experience that the landscape of the State has to offer. He suggested the State Government to formulate proposals for adventure sports under the schemes of Ministry of Youth Affairs, Sports and DoNER Ministry.
Rathore while assuring all possible support asked the State Government to formulate projects with integrated concept for consideration of the Ministry. He also suggested for conducting a visit by State officials to Gopichand�s academy in Hyderabad which has integrated complex housing both training/sports area and residential facility for the players.
Also present in the meeting was Union Sports Secretary Injeti Srinivas, who informed that �Khelo India� scheme offers ample scope for setting up of sports infrastructure in the State. The Ministry considers a maximum of 2 projects in a single location of Rs 8 crore each. He suggested the State Government to propose new projects within the contours of this scheme.
The Ministry suggested to explore the possibility of gap funding for five ongoing stadiums (under erstwhile special plan assistance by Government of India) through the Ministry of DoNER under its non-lapsable pool of resources.
