Following the commitment of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to make Punjab the number one state in the country again in sports, the draft of the new sports policy being made by the Sports Department has been almost prepared and will be released by the Chief Minister soon.
This was disclosed by Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer in a press communiqué released after giving the final touches to the draft of the proposed sports policy by meeting with the higher officials.
Before this, the Sports Minister held continuous parleys with the committee formed by sports experts to draft the sports policy and took feedback from sports persons and different sports organisations.
Meet Hayer said that emphasis has been laid on creating sports nurseries to centres of excellence from the village/city level to the state level to create a sports culture. Arranging direct jobs according to the achievements of the players, focusing on diet, training and rehabilitation special centres for the players, honouring the coaches and awards for the personalities/institutions working for the promotion of sports will be salient features of the sports policy.
The sports minister said that from the financial assistance to the players for the preparation of the international competitions, the emphasis has also been placed on honouring the players who won medals, with cash prizes.
Apart from this, it is recommended to include sports competitions which were not included in the list of prize money and to give cash to the medal winners of Special Olympics/Blind/Deaf Games along with Para Sports.
Meet Hayer said that emphasis will also be placed on the recruitment of coaches and filling up of various posts in the sports department. Along with strengthening the existing sports infrastructure, the focus will be on building the sports grounds and the construction of new sports stadiums.
The meeting was attended by Special Chief Secretary Sports Sarvjit Singh, Special Secretary P. Anandh Kumar and Director Harpreet Singh Sudan.