Chandigarh August 18: Punjab Government would soon announce its sports policy within an inbuilt feature to provide excellent infrastructure and training to the young players in order to compete at the International Sports events like Olympics, Asian Games and Common Wealth Games.
An announcement to this effect was made by the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal while presiding over a felicitation function organized by the sports department to honour Mr. Abhinav Bindra who won the first ever individual gold medal in 10 meter rifle shooting range in Beijing Olympics 2008.
Mr. Badal also presented a draft of Rs.1 crore to Mr. Bindra for this historic achievement that made both Punjab and India proud. He urged Abhinav Bindra to further utilize his talent in training the budding players of Punjab in the rifle shooting so that they could also win gold medals like him for our country.
Mr. Badal lamented that India was lagging behind in the Olympics medal tally as several countries had even won 15-17 gold medals whereas our country was only restricted to a single gold till today. He assured that the Punjab government would make all out efforts to promote sports in a big way so that Punjab could once again regain its lost pristine glory in the arena of sports.
Meanwhile Sports and Youth Affairs Minister S. Gulzar Singh Ranike proposed a vote of thanks on the occasion and assured that the state government would lay special emphasis on the training aspect of the budding players to enable them to compete globally and Punjab would be developed as a nursery of young players.
Earlier in his welcome address Principal Secretary Sports and Youth Affairs Mr. R.P.S. Pawar said that the state’s sports department had chalked out an ambitious programme to promote our traditional sport Hockey as a major thrust in the proposed sports policy.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by his Media Advisor Mr Harcharn Bains and Principal Secretary Mr. D.S. Guru.
Prominent amongst others who were present on the occasion included Local Government Minister Mr. Manoranajan Kalia, Co-operation Minister Capt. Kanwaljit Singh, Tansport Minister Master Mohan Lal, Rural Development Minister S. Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Tourism Minister Hira Singh Gabaria and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Mohinder Kaur Josh besides the Member Parliament and President Punjab Olympic Association Mr. Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Member Parliament Smt. Paramjit Singh. Eminent dignitaries in the field of sports like Olympian Balbir Singh, flying sikh Milkha Singh and Director Sports Pargat Singh besides the top brass of serving and retired civil and police personnel.