Haryana govt to unveil new sports policy in January next year

Terming the sports policy of the previous Congress government as "defective", the present BJP Government in Haryana will unveil a new policy in January next year.
The focus of the new policy would be on tapping talent at an early stage and grooming them in their chosen discipline in a result-oriented manner.
"The sports policy of the previous Hooda government was defective as it lacked on many fronts. We will unveil a new sports policy on January 12 on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary," Haryana's Health, Sports and Youth Affairs Minister, Anil Vij told PTI here today.
The previous regime might have termed its policy as best, but Vij was of the opinion that players from the state had brought laurels on the basis of their hard work.

"The policy was silent about grooming talent. The previous government may have appointed sportspersons who won gold and other medals as DSPs in the police department, but kept no track of them once they were recruited.
"What happened to the concerned player, what has been his/her contribution to the sport after their appointment, no one bothered to keep any track," Vij, the Ambala Cantt MLA, said.

Vij said soon he would be holding a meeting with prominent sportspersons of varied disciplines to take feedback about the difficulties being faced by them and also seek their suggestions, which would be incorporated in the new policy.

The Minister also dubbed as "total failure" the previous government's talent hunt programme -- Sports Potential Aptitude Training (SPAT), under which 5,000 students had been selected for giving scholarships ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 in the state.
"Giving stipend alone is not going to help churn out talent. We are not against promoting young talent and giving them stipend, but now they will have to chose one discipline for which we will groom them and they will have to deliver results," he said.
Vij, who also holds the Department of Youth Affairs, said they are drafting "big plans" to channelise the energies of the youth so that they do not go astray like some youths in neighbouring Punjab who have fallen prey to drug menace.

"I am also holding a joint meeting of this department with state police so that both work in tandem and keep an eye on the drug mafia which lures youth towards drug menace," he said.