Khelo India has awakened youth towards sports: Yogi
Gorakhpur, Feb 16 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on Thursday said that the Khelo India campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has awakened the youth towards sports.
Encouraging the players at the Saansad Khel Maha Kumbh organised in Gorakhpur, Yogi said, “The Khelo India campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has awakened the youth towards sports and the Fit India campaign went even further to promote sports in the country. Today, a new picture of a strong and capable India is being seen in the field of sports as well.”
The CM said, “The Khelo India and Fit India campaigns started under the guidance of PM Modi resulted in more players from the country participating in competitions like Olympics, Commonwealth and World Cup than before, Winning more medals. UP has also made excellent efforts in the last six years to advance sports players. The work of making sports grounds in every village of the state, mini stadium at block level and stadium at district level is being done on a war footing.”
He said that the state government has taken several steps to encourage sports and athletes. Best facilities are being provided to the sportspersons through sports colleges and stadiums. “Along with this, arrangements have been made to appoint internationally medal winning players on gazetted posts through direct recruitment. Also, 2 per cent horizontal reservation has been arranged for the appointment of talented and skilled players of the state in government-public undertakings of the state, on posts outside the purview of the Public Service Commission,” he said.
Yogi said that new sports persons are being groomed from village to village with the help of Khel Maha Kumbh while 5,000 to 7,000 new players have been prepared in each district. “Apart from this, sports kits are being made available to rural players through Youth and Women’s Mangal Dals in rural areas. Till now sports kits have been made available in thousands of villages.
Inspiring all the sportspersons to move forward, the Chief Minister said that you should participate enthusiastically in all the competitions, the central and state governments are ready to provide all kinds of cooperation,” he said
At the end of Saansad Khel Maha Kumbh, he watched the final match of the hockey competition at the regional playground and encouraged the players. The final match was played between the team of Regional Playground and MLZ Sports team, in which the team of MLZ Sports became the winner by 2-1.
The CM awarded the captains of both the teams along with the captains of the winning and runner-up teams in other events. On this occasion, he went to the field, shook hands with the players and got their introduction and wished them a bright future while blessing them to move forward.
United News of India