ONGC to boost sports in northeast India

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will help northeastern states to boost sports and sporting talent, a company official said on Friday.

Calling this a part of its corporate social responsibility, ONGC Executive Director S.C. Soni told reporters that the company had decided to help the sports sector financially and otherwise.

He said ONGC had allocated Rs 24 crore to add additional infrastructure to Tripura's Dasaratha Deb Sports stadium on the outskirts of Agartala.

"There is no financial limit to helping the northeastern states in sports. The Tripura government has made a Rs 150 crore project to develop the Dasaratha Deb Sports stadium. We will help them," he added.

The company has been organising a Lucky-Srivastava Memorial Invitation Football Tournament for 20 years.

In the tournament that begins on Saturday, 13 teams, including from Tripura, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Assam Rifles, Central Reserve Police Force and Border Security Force, will take part.

ONGC engineers Justin Lucky and S.K. Srivastava were killed by militants in Tripura in September 1992.

--IANS

sc/in/mr