AP to conduct Aaududam Andhra (Play Andhra) sports festival for 46 days
VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has announced that the AP government will conduct sports celebrations across the state under the name of “Aaududam Andhra” (Play Andhra) for a long stretch of 46 days.
Sports and games competitions will be held in village/ward, mandal, constituency, district, state levels during the course of seven weeks.
The CM made the announcement at a review meeting he held on sports and youth services at his CM Camp Office in Tadepalli on Thursday.
The Chief Minister said, “With a view to encourage the youth to take an active part in sports, the government will organise a ‘Play Andhra’ sports festival across AP. It would be held at village, mandal, district, constituency and state levels.
“Sportspersons like Ambati Rayudu and K.S. Bharat should be seen as role models. Officials should try and inculcate the habit of sports and games among students,” he said.
Officials would organise the 46-day festival for boys and girls at school and college grounds, municipal stadia, district sports complexes and university grounds. As part of the festival, cricket, kabaddi, volleyball, badminton and kho-kho matches would be conducted.
The CM said officials should also organise a 3-km run, mass yoga exercises, tennikoit and traditional games as part of the sports festival. This would be a regular feature henceforth every year, he said.
Stressing the need to create a favourable ambience to develop professional cricket teams at district and constituency levels for grooming a team from the state to compete in the Indian Premier League, Jagan Mohan Reddy asked the officials to seek the guidance of the CSK (Chennai Super Kings) team.
“With the inspiration of Ambati Rayudu and KS Bharat, we shall develop more cricketers. In the beginning, we will hand over coaching responsibilities to the CSK at three stadiums. Later, we shall seek the cooperation of the Mumbai Indians team,” he said.
The Chief Minister said youth at the village level should be encouraged to play and officials should give them playing kits and encourage them with prizes, apart from establishing play grounds in mandals.
“You should take steps to supply playing kits to the village secretariats in future, besides equipping all government schools with necessary sports paraphernalia,” Jagan Mohan Reddy told the officials.
The CM said every educational institution above high school must have necessary sports equipment. “Formulate an action plan to establish indoor stadiums in all constituencies,” he said.
Chief secretary Jawahar Reddy, principal Secretary (youth services & sports) Vani Mohan, AP sports authority (SAAP) chairman B. Siddharth Reddy, Vice-Chairman and MD K. Harshavardhan, finance secretary N. Guljar and senior officials were present.
