Khelo India programme, the pet project of Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, received a fillip in the 2018-2019 Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday.
Khelo India programme, which focuses on revival of sports at grassroots level, will receive Rs 520.09 crore, an addition of Rs. 170 crore from last year.
While the overall budget for Ministry of Youth Affairs increased only marginally from Rs. 1938 crore to Rs. 2196.35 crore, Rs. 170 crore of the Rs 258 crore increase was allocated to the Khelo India programme.
The Sports Authority of India (SAI), however, was the biggest loser, with its funding reduced by Rs 66 crore to Rs. 429.56 crore for the fiscal year 2018-2019.
With two major sporting events — Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, happening this year, the budget cut for the SAI, where most of the national camps are held, was unexpected. But the Union Budget has focused more on rewards for sportspersons and assistance to national sports federations.
The National Welfare Fund for sportspersons increased from Rs. 334.31 crore to Rs.374.00 crore while National Sports Federations also benefited from a decent increase in its fund allocation. The NSFs will get a budget of Rs. 341 crore (up from Rs. 302.18 crore) for the current fiscal.
The Central government, meanwhile, decided to reduce the fund allocation for enhancement of sports facility in Jammu and Kashmir. From the earlier grant of Rs. 75 crore, the Union has restricted the expenditure to Rs. 50 crore.
PTI adds:
The Khelo India is one of the subsidiary part of the composite Khelo India - National Programme for Development of Sports - under which a total of Rs 1262.79 crore has been earmarked, a sharp increase from Rs 1047.19 provided last year.
The scheme of Human Resource Development in Sports saw a cut by 50 percent from Rs 10 crore to Rs 5 crore.
Sports Budget for 2018-19 - Highlights
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