New Delhi, January 21: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia urged the sportspersons from Delhi to achieve big and make Delhi and the entire nation proud. In a function organized at Chhatrasal Stadium, he distributed cheques worth INR 7.48 crore as financial assistance to 307 sportspersons.

Deputy CM Sisodia said that Delhi government is ensuring world-class training as well as nutritional requirements of the young sportspersons. He said, “Sports play a crucial role in education. On one hand, Delhi has been at the top position in School Games for last three years. On the other hand, it is receiving accolades for its improved education system. NITI Aayog, a central government agency, ranked Delhi government schools highest in the country. This is a proud achievement for Delhi.” Delhi Sports University Will Provide World-Class Sports Opportunities to Youth of Delhi; Will Fulfil India’s Aspirations to Bag Olympic Medals: Deputy CM Manish Sisodia.

Deputy CM Sisodia said, “Other governments pay attention to their sportspersons only after they win medals. But, Delhi government is helping the sportspersons during their struggle phase and enabling them to win medals by providing all possible assistance.” Sisodia said that under Delhi government’s Play and Progress scheme, financial assistance of INR 2 lakh for under 14 category and INR 3 lakh for under 17 category is provided. Delhi government provides assistance of upto INR 16 lakhs to talented sportspersons from Delhi.

He said that it is Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s dream to that every student plays at least one sport, and every talented sportsperson gets all kind of assistance from the government to excel. That is why Delhi government is running different schemes to promote sports and prepare sportspersons to win medals.

Sports branch at the Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi has taken several steps to promote sports at the grassroots level to achieve holistic development of students. Delhi is on the top of the medal tally in the National School Games in its 2019-20 edition, bagging close to 1000 medals. Delhi players have also won 39 gold, 36 silver and 47 bronze medals in the third edition of Khelo India Youth Games-2020. Different schemes like Play and Progress, Mission Excellence and Cash incentive to the medal winning sportspersons provide financial assistance to the sports talents from a young age.

Delhi government has done a lot of work to improve the sports infrastructure in the city. There are 17 operational swimming pools under the Sports branch and 8 are under construction. There are many synthetic athletic tracks, synthetic hockey turfs, archery fields and other sports facilities which are already operational. Two sports hostels with training facilities have also been sanctioned at the cost of approximately 100 crores.

The function was attended by Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar along with Secretary Education H Rajesh Prasad, Director Education Udit Prakash Rai and sports nutritionist Ruchika Sodhi.