17 Dec : The Government has recently launched a national programme titled Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Ahiyan (PYKKA), which aims at providing basic sports infrastructure in all villages and block panchayats of the country in a phased manner over a period of 10 years and access to organized sports competitions at block, district, state and national levels. This was stated by the Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports, Dr. M.S. Gill in the Lok Sabha today, in a written reply to a question by Shri M. P. Veerendrakumar.
The Minister further stated that under the scheme, each village panchayat and block panchayat would be given one time capital grant of Rs.1.00 lakh and Rs.5.00 lakh respectively for undertaking development of sports infrastructure viz. development of playfield, athletic track, fencing of playfield, goal posts, poles for net games, outdoor fitness equipment etc. The State share in this will be 25% for normal states and 10% for special category States. In addition, while village panchayats would be given annual acquisition grant for procurement of sports equipment and annual operation grant to meet operational expenses of non-competition nature at Rs.10,000 and Rs.12,000 per month respectively, block panchayats would be given Rs.20,000 and Rs.24,000 respectively. Each block panchayat would also be provided annual competition grant of Rs.50,000 for holding block level competitions and each district will be provided competition grant of Rs.3.00 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.