SHILLONG: Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju on Monday inaugurated a Khelo India School (Sports school) at Assam Rifles Public School (ARPS) School at Laitkor here, the first ever sports school in the North East.
He also inaugurated the synthetic football ground at SAI training centre,Shillong.
The ARPS school has been restructered as residential sports school under the Khelo India which is a national programme for the development of sports. A memorandum was signed between the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and ARPS for setting up the sports school.
Addressing the gathering, the Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs said it was a historic moment to begin with a sports school. Stating that identification of talent and creating sports facility is the real issue in the country infrastructure like stadium and all comes later, he said that ARPS Sports would be a foundation to produce champions and medal winners.
Pointing out that the country lacks sports culture he said that playing was always treated secondary and therefore the mindset of the society and the attitude of the government has to change.
Stressing that there is a need to produce talents and medal winners in a systematic way, the Union Minister said that the the country does not create talents and there are isolated cases when one or two talents are found who are then provided good coaching and they succeed.
Lauding initiatives like Khelo India, he said the it had become a brand now and ARPS Sports is under this and they will scout for talents and nurture them.
Dismayed at the poor medal tally of the country in the Olympics, the Minister said that the agenda of the sports Ministry is clear that by 2028 Los Angeles India has to be among the top ten Olympic medal winning countries and efforts have been put in for achieving the goal.
Requesting everyone to contribute towards making the country a sporting nation, the Minister said that people don’t even watch sports in the country other than cricket and wrestling these days a little.
He said that the stadiums are empty and there are not much viewership in TV and internet as well.
He pointed out, “No viewers means no sponsor and slow or no growth.”
“Sport is a soft power ,a unifier and the country has to understand this to become a great sporting nation,” he added.
Meanwhile, Director General, Assam Rifles, Lt Gen Sukhdeep Sangwan said that it is important to have a institution in the NE as the region is full of talents.
“Let’s embrace this sporting culture, the North East has the passion to excel,” he said.
Stressing that everyone should collectively have this passion and mission for winning the Olympic gold, he said that it is challenging but one has to dream to reach there.