Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the Secretary, Sports, who is holding concurrent charge as Director General of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), to expedite the restructuring of its cadre to create at least nine more regional centres in the country and to effectively manage these centres, especially in the north eastern region and bigger states like Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh etc.
Sonowal's direction comes in the wake of him expressing his unhappiness over reports of non-availability of Officers and coaches to man over 80 SAI centres spread across the country and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Since its formation in April 1984, the SAI has undergone many changes and in studies carried out by the Staff Inspection Unit (SIU) of the Department of Personnel, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Sports and Youth Affairs and Tata Consultancy Services, many far reaching recommendations were made.
Sonowal has taken prompt action on many of the recommendations made so far.
Meanwhile in a development related to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar scheme, which was introduced in 2009 to encourage and promote involvement of corporates, sports promotion boards etc., in the promotion and development of sports in the country, has been revised to include four categories for consideration. They are as follows:
(i) Identification and nurturing of budding/young talent
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(ii) Encouragement of sports through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
(iii) Employment of sportspersons and sports welfare measures
(iv) Sports for Development.