Sports fete brought rural talent to the fore: CM Jagan

Visakhapatnam: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has stated that the Aadudam Andhra sports festival helped identify talent among the rural youth in the state.

Addressing a gathering before giving away cash prizes to the winning teams during the Aadudam Andhra grand finale at the Dr YSR International Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said the government was committed to encouraging sports and helping the youth shine in national and international sports events.

Jagan Mohan Reddy gave away mementoes and cash prizes of Rs 5 lakh each to the winning teams at the state level in cricket, kabaddi, kho-kho, and volleyball and Rs 2 lakh to the winning team in badminton.

First prizes were won by teams of Eluru district (men’s cricket) and NTR district (women’s cricket, Bapatla (men’s Kabaddi) and Visakhapatnam (women’s Kabaddi), Bapatla (men and women Volleyball), Bapatla (men’s Kho-kho) and Prakssam (women’s Kho-Kho).

The Chief Minister said Aadudam Andhra aimed at creating awareness about physical fitness and good health as also to bring out the hidden talent among the youth and help them shine at national and international levels.

Notably, the state government has conducted as many as 3.30 lakh, 1.24 lakh, 7,346, 1,731 and 260 sports events at village, mandal, constituency, district and state levels as part of the festival.

From these, 14 youths were identified as having exceptional talents in cricket, kabaddi, kho-kho, volleyball and badminton.

The Chief Minister said Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Andhra Cricket Association, Pro-Kabaddi, AP Kho-Kho Association and other sports associations have decided to adopt them and train them.

CSK and Andhra Cricket Association would train Pawan (Vizianagaram), K.V.M. Vishnu Vardhani (NTR district), Shiva (Anaparthi- East Godavari district) and Kumari K. Gayatri (Kadapa) in cricket. At the same time, Pro Kabaddi and AP Kabaddi Association have would train Satish, Suman (Tirupati), Balakrishna Balakrishna Reddy (Bapatla) and Sandhya (Visakhapatnam) in Kabaddi.

The Black Horse organisation will train Satyam (Srikakulam) and Mounika (Bapatla) in volleyball, the CM said, adding that K. Rammohan (Bapatla) and E. Hemavati (Prakasam) would be trained in Kho-Kho by the AP Kho-Kho Association.

A. Vamsi Krishna Raju (Eluru) and M. Akansha (Bapatla) will be trained by the AP Badminton Association.

The grand finale was marked by a laser show, Kuchipudi dance by special teams and other performances by a Dubai team. The CM also witnessed the last five overs of the men’s cricket final match.

All people above the age of 15 were encouraged to participate in the festival and as many as 25,40,972 sports persons took part in the events at various levels, of which 7, 81,709 were females.

Besides giving the participants sports kits worth Rs 37 crore, the state government has instituted cash prizes worth Rs 12.21 crore for the winners at various levels.

Cash prizes of Rs 5 lakh, Rs 60,000, and Rs 35,000 were announced for first-prize-winning teams at the state, district and constituency levels, respectively in kho-kho, volleyball, cricket and Kabaddi events.

Prizes of Rs 3 lakh, Rs 30,000 and Rs 15,000 were announced as second prizes in the respective categories.

Third prize of Rs 2 lakh, Rs 10, 000 and Rs 5000 were announced at the state, district and constituency levels respectively for the above events while badminton winners were given Rs 2 lakh, Rs 35,000 and Rs 25,000 as first prize at the state, district and constituency levels respectively.

Badminton second prize winners received Rs 1 lakh, Rs 20,000 and Rs 10,000 at the state, district and constituency levels, respectively while Rs 50,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 were given for the third prize winner.