Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said players from the state winning medals in the Olympics and Asian Games will be appointed as deputy superintendent of police and deputy collector. Chouhan made the announcement on Monday while addressing the state government’s sports awards distribution programme, which was also attended by Union Minister of Sports Anurag Thakur.
On the occasion, Chouhan and Thakur unveiled the logo of ‘Khelo India Youth Games-2022’, scheduled to be held in Madhya Pradesh next year.
The CM said parents are worried about the careers of their children and prevent them from indulging in sports.
He said the state government had appointed hockey player Vivek Prasad Sagar, who was part of the Indian team that won the bronze in the Tokyo Olympics, as deputy superintendent of police and gave him a house worth Rs one crore in Bhopal.
“We have decided that the players who win medals in the Olympics and Asian Games will be appointed to the posts of deputy SP and deputy collector,” the CM said.
“The state government has also decided to appoint 10 players as sub-inspectors and 50 as constables in the police force on the basis of their performance. Teams or players that perform well and win medals in Khelo India will be given Rs 5 lakh annually for coaching,” he said.
The chief minister said his government will gradually develop sports infrastructure at the village level.
Speaking on the occasion, Thakur praised the shooting and equestrian academies of the MP Sports Department and termed them as one of the best in the country.
He said the importance of sports lies in the fact that the country’s national flag is unfurled on foreign soil if a players win a competition there.
Citing various medals won by players in 2022, Thakur said the year has been very important for sports.
A budget of Rs 3,195 crore has been provided for five years under the Khelo India programme, he said.
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The Union minister said 1,000 Khelo India centres are being opened in the country and 750 of them have already been approved. The work on these centres will be completed by August 15 next year.
Thakur praised MP Sports Minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia and said she was the only one who had attended the entire two-day conference of sports ministers of all states at Kevadia in Gujarat.
Besides equestrian and shooting academies, Thakur also inspected the Water Sports Academy, Tatya Tope Nagar Stadium and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) facility earlier in the day.
The fifth edition of Khelo India youth games is scheduled to be organised from January 30 to February 11 next year.
The games will be held in Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Mandla, Balaghat and Khargone (Maheshwar), an official said.
For the first time, water sports, namely kayaking and canoeing, canoe slalom and rowing will be part of this edition of the games. Fencing has also been included for the first time in the games, the official said.
As part of the fifth edition of Khelo India, 27 games will be played at 23 game venues. Around 6,000 players, 303 international and 1,089 national officials will be a part of the event.
Nearly 2,000 volunteers will be deployed at different venues for the Khelo India games.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
