Naidu plans best sports policy for AP

Vijayawada:Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has promised the “best” sports policy for Andhra Pradesh and said he would present it soon for cabinet approval.

Naidu held a review meeting on this subject with sports minister Mandipalli Ramprasad and senior officials at the Secretariat here on Monday.

The chief minister said AP’s sports policy is being formulated based on four mission objectives -- sports for all, nurture talent, sports ecosystem and global visibility.

The policy would give priority to training at the global level, incentives, job security, arranging world class facilities, coordination with external sports associations, use of new technology, private sector participation, holding of national and international events and promotion of sports tourism.

The CM gave his consent for certain proposals to promote sports in a big way from the rural level.

Accordingly, sports quota in employment would be enhanced to three per cent from the present two per cent. A three per cent reservation has been proposed for the uniformed services.

In the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh, a 50 per cent reservation would be provided for those who won international medals for appointment of grade-3 coaches.

Moreover, the incentives may be raised for those who win medals in Olympics, Asian Games, the world championships, national games, Khelo India games, national school games etc.

Though Haryana used to be in the forefront in giving incentives to medal winners until now, AP would hereafter give more incentives than other states as envisioned in the new sports policy.

Accordingly, for a gold medal in the Olympics, a cash award of `7 crore would be given to the winner as an incentive instead of the present `75 lakh.

“Similarly, for a silver medal winner, a cash award of `5 crore can be given, instead of the present `50 lakh. For a bronze medal winner, a sum of `3 crore may be given instead of the `30 lakh at present. For those who take part in the Olympics, the offer can be `50 lakh from the state government,” the chief minister suggested.

For those who take part in Asian Games and get a gold medal, the state’s offer can be `four crore, for silver medal winner `2 crore and for bronze medal winner `one crore. Those who participate in such games but have not got any medal, may be given `10 lakh as incentive.

As for winning a gold medal in world championship and World Cup tournaments, the offer may be as follows: for gold medal winner, `50 lakh, for silver `35 lakh and for bronze `25 lakh.

National Games: for gold medal winner, `10 lakh, for silver winner, `5 lakh and for bronze winner, `3 lakh.

For Khelo India Games and National School Games: Gold medal winner `2.50 lakh, silver medal winner `2 lakh and for bronze medal-`1 lakh.

The CM promised to appoint players who win medals in both Olympics and Asian Games as Group-1 officers.

Naidu directed the officials to develop Amaravati as a sports city and set up integrated sports complexes in Tirupati, Visakhapatnam and Amaravati.

The chief minister asked the officials to set up sports schools in Kadapa, Vijayawada and Vizianagaram (for tribals). He laid stress on developing facilities for mountain biking, water sports, nature photography and trekking, as AP has a long coastline and hill ranges and forests.

The CM said he would present the draft sports policy before the cabinet meeting for its approval.