TG to unveil new sports policy soon

Highlights

   •   CM bats for comprehensive Sports Hub in state
   •   Announces Special Board for Sports University

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has decided to accord high priority to sports training in the state and make athletes ready to compete in international events and win medals. As part of this exercise, the government has decided to come up with a new Sports Policy soon.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Friday asked the officials to prepare the new Sports Policy with a focus on creating necessary infrastructure facilities like sports academies with best of trainers, establish a Sports University at Gachibowli Stadium and bring the LB Stadium, Hakimpet Sports School, Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, Saroornagar Indoor Stadium, University Cycling Velodrome, etc, under the Sports Hub for efficient management.

At a high-level meeting on the Sports Policy, the Chief Minister said that on the lines of Young India Skill University, the Sports University would also be managed in the PPP model.

A Special Board would be constituted for the Sports University and a Chairman will be appointed by delegating powers to him to run the university as an autonomous institution.

It has been decided to offer about 13 courses in the Sports University. Fourteen sports training programmes - Cricket, Hockey, Football, Basketball, Swimming, Tennis, Badminton, Shooting, Boxing, Wrestling, Table Tennis, Athletics, Gymnastics and Aquatics are being included in the Sports Hub.

The new Sports Policy would also address the challenges facing in providing sports training and the skills required for national level and international level competition, scouting for talented persons in various sports categories in the state and offering training to them without distributing their studies. The officials have been asked to bring best coaches from across the globe by signing MoUs with foreign universities.

A clear policy would also be adopted to provide incentives to the sportspersons who win medals at the national and international level. The officials were directed to finalise the guidelines on the incentives to be given to the winners at various competitions and the jobs to be offered to the winners.