Sports Department, Punjab today released annual sports calendar aiming to engage youth in sports and weaning them away from menace of drugs by organizing Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh Punjab Games and hockey league in the state.A spokesman of the Punjab government today said that Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who also holds the Sports portfolio, had already approved the calendar with strict instructions to provide all facilities to the students in educational institutes to create atmosphere for healthy competition.
Giving details of the sports calendar Mr. Tejinder Singh Dhaliwal, Director Sports, Punjab said that block level rural competitions for boys and girls under-16 years of age would be organized in all 142 blocks in the month of July-August, 2014. District level rural competitions would be held from 27-29 August and district level women games from 29-31 August at district headquarters, he added.
To give a fillip to rural sports, department would organise Punjab state rural games for boys under-16 at Sangrur in the 3rd week of October, 2014 and for girls in the last week of October, 2014 at Hoshiarpur. Adding further he said that Punjab state women games are scheduled to be held at Patiala in the 3rd week of September, 2014.
He also said that Punjab has offered to host the National level sports festival for women (Group-II) in the games of Handball, Hockey & Lawn Tennis at Jalandhar from 20-23 December, 2014. Besides that department has also planned to hold weekend hockey league for boys under the age group of 14, 17, 19 years & above. State government has provided Rs. 4 crore out of budget estimate of Rs. 7 crore for ‘coaching & competition scheme’ wherein the remaining amount of Rs. 3 crore is expected from Govt. of India.
Giving details of the proposed Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh Punjab Games, Mr. Dhaliwal said that the mega sports event includes Athletics, Boxing, Basketball, Football, Kabaddi, Weight Lifting, Wrestling, Volleyball, Hockey, Shooting and Tug of War at four different venues of the state namely Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda and Jalandhar in the month of November and December this. The total prize money to be distributed in these games amounts to Rs. 2.31 crore and Rs. 21 lakh per discipline.Adding further he said that gold medal winning teams would take home prize money of Rs. 9 lakh, runners up Rs. 6 lakh and the third position holder team Rs. 5 lakh. The games would be organized in collaboration with Punjab Olympic Association and state sports associations as per national standards and total expenditure Rs. 6.50 crore towards this event would be borne by the state.