Shillong, Mar 11: The Meghalaya government has allocated Rs 200 crore for sports and youth affairs in the 2021-22 state budget, which was presented in the Assembly yesterday.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, who also holds the finance portfolio, said that the government “has a three-pronged approach towards sports development, focusing on infrastructure creation, talent identification and nurturing and incentivisation of athletes.”
Sixty percent, or Rs 120 crore, of the sports budget will go towards three major, ongoing infrastructure projects in Shillong, Tura and Wahiajer, which are at various stages of implementation. These projects comprise the JN Sports Complex in Shillong, the PA Sangma Integrated Sports Complex in Tura and Wahiajer Multi Sports Complex.
Another Rs 50 crore will go towards some of the 100 sports infrastructure projects that are being initiated in rural areas.
In addition, the government will incentivise athletes as is provided for in the state’s sports policy. In this regard 264 athletes in archery, football, muay thai, jeet kune do, karate and badminton have been identified. The amount of money for this incentivisation was not mentioned.
