Painting a grim picture of sports infrastructure in Haryana, the CAG has stated that several mini stadia and Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Khel Parisars (RGGKP) lack equipment and basic amenities such as power and water and are unfit for sports activities.
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in his report for the FY 2014-15, observed the deficiencies in maintenance of the infrastructure is bound to have an adverse impact on promotion of sports activities and nurturing talent.
The CAG says in the report that a joint inspection with officials of Sports and Youth Affairs (SYA) department was conducted in six districts - Jhajjar, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Yamunanagar, Ambala and Fatehabad - to examine the infrastructure of 27 RGGKPs and 34 mini stadiums.
CAG found playgrounds in 71 per cent of the stadiums and 70 per cent of the RGGKP bumpy and unfit for sports.
"Playgrounds of 12 stadiums (35 per cent) in Rohtak, Jhajjar, Fatehabad and Bhiwani were in low lying areas. Nomadic animals were grazing in five stadiums (15 per cent) due to broken boundarywall, while agricultural waste were also scattered in the playgrounds in eight stadiums (24 per cent) making them unfit for sports activities," the report said.
Basketball net, volleyball net, football goalposts, badminton court, weightlifting equipment, etc were available only in 16 stadiums (47 per cent) and 23 RGGKPs (85 per cent), the CAG noted.
Out of the 34 stadiums, electricity was not available in 32, water in 27, and bathromms in 28 of them, the report says.
Out of the 27 RGGKPs, electricity, water, and bathrooms were not available in 19, 17, and 2 of them respectively.
Twenty-two tubewells were installed at the RGGKPs but 21 of them were dysfunctional for the want of electricity connections and proper maintenance, it says, adding due to lack of water, toilets and bathrooms were not usable.
It further said high tension power lines were passing over the playgrounds in six stadiums posing a major risk.
Scrutiny of records of district sports and youth affairs officers (DSYAO) Ambala and Jhajjar showed that SYA Department transferred Rs 1.52 crore during October 2010 to July 2012 for construction of four stadiums and one Badminton Hall without ensuring the availability of land.
It was noticed construction work of these stadiums has not
started (June 2015) as the land was not made available by Gram Panchayats concerned. DSYAO, Ambala stated (June 2015) the work has not been started so far. Response from DSYAO, Jhajjar was not received, the CAG report said.
Thus, transferring of funds without ensuring availability of land resulted not only in blockade of funds of Rs 1.52 crore but also deprived sports persons of the facilities.
Scrutiny of records of district sports and youth affairs officers (DSYAO) of Ambala and Yamunanagar showed the SYA transferred Rs 32.25 lakh to the different executing agencies for renovation of gymnasium hall and construction of mini stadium at Rupali village (Yamunanagar) during July 2008 to March 2014, the report said.
During physical verification by the department, the Deputy Director found there was seepage at one or two places of the ceiling of the Gymnasium hall, it said.
Despite expenditure of Rs 16.63 lakh (July 2012) and Rs 1.23 lakh (November 2013) on renovation of the hall at Ambala, defects could not be fixed, it said.
The fact, thus, remains that even after incurring expenditure of Rs 17.86 lakh on repair of the gymnasium hall, it could not be put to use as of December 2015, report said.
An amount of Rs 14.39 lakh was released to Executive Engineer, PRI, Yamunanagar in July 2008 for construction of Mini Stadium at village Rupali, without ensuring availability of land, the report said.
The executing agency returned (December 2008) Rs 12.38 lakh to the Department after deducting Rs 2.01 lakh incurred on 10 per cent of the work, which proved wasteful as a stay order had been given by the High Court on the land the stadium was to be built on. As such, Mini stadium remained unconstructed till December 2015, the report said.
