SHILLONG: Despite all the talks about promoting the lot of youth of the State through sports activities, Meghalaya faces an acute shortage of coaches in various disciplines. Not only this, the State has till date failed to focus on several sports disciplines. Expressing concern over this on the floor of the House on Wednesday, the Opposition urged the Sports department to identify and prioritize the growth of more sports disciplines besides assigning increasing number coaches to each discipline. In his reply, Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Zenith Sangma said that as many as 10 sports disciplines have been identified for development of sports activities and events in the State.
He also informed that the number of coaches available with the Sports and Youth Affairs department is 33. While there are eight coaches for football and nine for athletics, boxing and archery have three each, table tennis, karate, basketball and badminton have two each, while taekwondo and judo have one coach each. UDP legislator Jemino Mawthoh said there is little to cheer about in terms of the sports activities in Meghalaya. “Both the number of disciplines and coaches are too less,” he said. Admitting the shortcomings of the government in this regard, the Sports minister said the government was committed to identify more disciplines for promotion. “Wushu and tennis are being prioritized,” he added.
He also said that for kickboxing, the department had provided financial assistance to boys from the State and they secured medals during the world championship held in Italy last year. The minister informed that the State government had also provided financial assistance to mountaineer Wansuk Myrthong who had scaled Mount Everest in 2013. When Titosstarwell Chyne of the UDP wanted to know whether any PT instructors had been appointed as coaches, the minister replied in the affirmative. However, Embhahlang Syiemlieh (UDP) pointed out that promotion of PT instructors as coaches is unwarranted as they are supposed to give physical training to the students in schools.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader, Donkupar Roy, brought to the notice of the government the need to widely promote football in the State.
Paul Lyngdoh (UDP) stressed on the importance of carrying out a scientific study to determine the core areas of strengths and weaknesses of the State as far as various sports disciplines are concerned so that the government can prioritize the areas. In his reply, the minister said though the state government has not carried out any scientific study, it will identify the potentiality of the youths in future.
Lyngdoh also pointed out that hockey was not included as one of the disciplines by the government even though the State hockey team had emerged runners up in a tournament losing to Manipur recently. In reply, the minister said though hockey is important and is in the government’s scheme of things it requires a lot of funds to develop any discipline and improve infrastructure. “We will take it up in a phased manner,” he added. Saleng Sangma (Independent) brought to the notice of the House the absence of coach in several disciplines in several districts of the State, which was admitted by the minister. He also informed the House that a karate coach was allegedly drawing salary sitting in Shillong instead of offering coaching in Tura. To a supplementary question by Saleng, the minister assured that he would take action against the coach if the allegation is found to be true.
