Sports ministry gets 700cr-plus boost in Union Budget

In a year when the Indian athletes will compete at the Asian Games and prepare for 2024 Paris Olympics the Sports Ministry has got a fillip with the government allocating Rs 339732 crore an increase of Rs 72397 crore in the Union Budget here on WednesdayThe amount is more than the revised budget of the previous financial year 202223 when the ministry received Rs 267335 crore as against the actual allocation of Rs 306260 croreOne of the reasons for the reduced revised allocation for 202223 could be the postponement of the Hangzhou Asian Games which will be held this yearThe ministrys flagship programme Khelo India National Programme for Development of Sports continues to be the governments priority with it being allotted Rs 1045 crore as against the revised allocation of Rs 606 crore during the previous financial yearThis is an increase of Rs 439 crore and points to the governments commitment to the programme which over the years has shown the potential to produce athletes for major global events such as the Olympics Asian Games and the Commonwealth GamesThe Sports Authority of India SAI which takes care of organising national camps for athletes providing infrastructure and equipment to athletes appointment of coaches and maintaining sports infrastructure among others has seen a Rs 3609 crore increase in its budgetary allocation from the previous years revised expenditure of Rs 74943 crore Their allocation for 202324 stands at Rs 78552 croreThe National Sports Federations NSFs have received an increased allocation of Rs 45 crore from previous years revised budget of Rs 280 crore and will now get Rs 325 croreAlso readIOC gives green signal to Russian Belarusian athletes to compete in Paris OlympicsThe National AntiDoping Agency NADA affiliated to the World AntiDoping Agency WADA and the National Dope Testing Laboratory NDTL which earlier received funding from SAI will now get it directlyA provision has been made in this years budget to provide NADA a funding of Rs 2173 crore while NDTL which conducts the tests will receive Rs 1950 croreWith countries across the world striving for sporting excellence and paying more attention to sports science and scientific training of athletes this years budget has also made a provision of Rs 13 crore for National Centre of Sports Science and ResearchThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever