National Civil Services Day saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi award Bishnupur (Manipur) and Churu (Rajasthan) districts for promoting excellence in sports and wellness (through the Khelo India scheme) in New Delhi.
The winners of the award received a trophy, a scroll, and an incentive of 20 lakh rupees for the implementation of the programme and bridging resource gaps in any area of public welfare.
“Khelo India – National Programme for Development of Sports” (Khelo India Scheme) is a flagship scheme of the Government of India which aims at achieving sporting excellence in the country.
Lourembam Bikram, the Deputy Commissioner of Bishnupur, received the award on behalf of the district.
“In the district, we have a policy, called the one locality, one community-playground. Every playground and community hall has been converted into training centres,” he told DD News after receiving the award.
“So, all the award winners and previous award winners, medal winners at the national and international levels have come back and have become coaches. This has given a very big impetus to the sports sector in the district.”
He also added several government programmes were converged along with Khelo India for the benefit of the district, including the MLA Local Area Development fund and the NREGS (National Rural Employment Generation Scheme).
Five priority programmes were identified under the Prime Minister’s Awards Scheme and a total of 16 awards for the same were presented on April 21, celebrated as Civil Services Day 2022.
The five programmes are as follows:
- Promoting “Jan Bhagidari” or People’s Participation in Poshan Abhiyan
- Promoting excellence in sports and wellness through Khelo India scheme
- Digital payments and Good Governance in PM SVANidhi Yojana
- Holistic Development through One District One Product scheme
- Seamless, End-to-End Delivery of Services without Human Intervention.
Talking to Sportstar , Ishwar Singh Lamba, the sports officer of Churu discussed the extensive work that has been done in the district for the development of sports.
“This award has been a recognition for the work done in sports and its infrastructure development in the district. In Khelo India Guwahati, Churu district earned 10 medals, with the majority coming from girls,” he said.
“There are eight Khelo Indian Institutes available for several sports (like Table Tennis, hockey, handball, athletics) and additionally we have a Class I synthetic track ready for athletics in Churu, which is approved by IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation).”
READ: Fourteen-year-old Unnati becomes youngest shuttler in senior Indian team for Asian Games
He also said that having greenery around the sports complexes in a desert district was a challenge and the district adapted the drip system of irrigation to make sure the impediments of heat and drought were controlled as much as possible.
While the Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration has been going on since 2006, it has been revamped in 2021 and it is the first time that districts have been recognised for progress in sports.
Comments
SHARE