New Delhi,30 Apr (Lok Sabha):The Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports, Dr. M.S. Gill informed the Lok Sabha today, in a written reply to a question by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan that the Government has recently approved the Panchayat Yuva Krida aur Khel Abhiyan, which aims at creation of basic sports infrastructure at grassroots level, in all panchayats of the country, in a phased manner during 11th and 12th Five year Plan periods, and organizing sports competitions at village, block and district levels.
Under the scheme, each Village Panchayat and each Block Panchayat, would be given onetime seed capital grant of Rs. 1 lakh, and Rs. 5 lakh, respectively. The state contribution in this will be 25% for normal states, and 10% for Special category States. In addition, while village panchayats would be given annual equipment acquisition grant, and annual operational grant of Rs. 10,000 and Rs.12,000 per annum, respectively, block panchayats would be given Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 24,000 respectively.
Each block panchyat, would be provided annual competition grant of Rs. 50,000 for holding block level competitions. Each district will be provided annual competition grant of Rs. 3 lakh, for holding district level competitions. Further, prize money would also be provided to the winners (first three positions), in block level and district level competitions.
The Minister further stated that an amount of Rs. 125.00 crore has been allocated under the scheme for the year 2008-09 and an amount of Rs. 1567.36 crore has been allocated for the 11th Five Year Plan.