CM attends closing ceremony of Khel Mahakumbh 2015-16 at Surendranagar

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Gandhinagar, Friday: Gujarat Chief Minister Mrs. Anandiben Patel attended closing ceremony of Khel Mahakumbh 2015-16 at Surendranagar and expressed commitment of the state government to encourage talented sports personalities of the state for getting chance to participate in Olympic Games. She felicitated winners of Khel Mahakumbh and introduced the government’s objective to make sports a vital part of education and develop good sports players from the state. The event included many highlights like the kabaddi match between the teams of Gir and Narmada. With additions like beach sports and school/college sports league, Khel Mahakumbh 2015 turned to be exciting.

The closing ceremony of Khel Mahakumbh 2015 began with the felicitation of the winners which involved categories like best district, best school, best college and winners of Asian games. The award for the best district was given to Ahmedabad Corporation for securing 1st place, Surat Corporation for securing 2nd place, and Vadodra Corporation for securing the 3rd place. In total more than 1.5 lakh players were given cash awards worth Rs 42.45 cr and 28000 players were selected for intensive training in summer camps.

She mentioned that Khel Mahakumbh initiative of the then CM Mr. Narendra Modi was started with an aim to encourage sports in Gujarat; now it has scaled new heights where sport stars of Gujarat are being recognized at National and International level. The focus is now on creating a sporting culture in the state which was witnessed by the number of registrations received for this year’s KMK which stood at over 40 lakhs and out of that, 24,80,569 players participated in the event. Also, 7 leagues of 5 different sports have been started as sports leagues, involving schools and colleges of the state. Government has also decided cash prizes worth Rs. 50 Crore for the same.

Talking about encouraging sports in the state, she informed about recently unveiled sports policy under which winners of international as well national sports competition will receive cash prizes. Individual Olympic winners will be felicitated with Rs. 5 Crores, 3 Crores and 2 Crores for gold, silver and bronze medal respectively. Moreover, Asian games winners will be awarded Rs. 2 Crore, 1 Crore and 50 lakh for gold, silver and bronze medal respectively. For the winners of Commonwealth games, the awards would be Rs. 1 Crore, 50 lakhs, 25 lakhs. For Commonwealth Asian Championship (Seniors), the awards would be 50, 30, 20 lakhs. For Commonwealth Asian Championship (Juniors), the prizes would be 25, 15, 10. And lastly for national games/ national championships, the awards would be 3, 2, 1 lakh.

CM Smt. Patel informed citizens that the state government has taken various initiatives for promoting sports and will ensure that students get proper infrastructure and international level training. Stressing on the need to also think about the differently-abled children, she talked about creating provisions for such children which would also enable them to excel in sports. She also talked about government’s decision to set up a sports university in Gujarat and informed the audience that 100 Acre land near vadodra and 20 Crore Rs. has already been allocated for this purpose.