Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, has announced that the state government will allocate Rs 1000 crore over the next few years to develop sporting facilities in every district of the state. Sarma distributed appointment letters to medal winners of the 36th National Games and felicitated an expedition team to Mount Kanchenjunga during a program held at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati. The chief minister also said that the initiative was aimed at encouraging the youth of Assam to pursue sports as a career opportunity, and those who win medals in National/Asian/Commonwealth/Olympic Games will immediately get government jobs.
The Assam Mountaineering Association led a team of climbers to Mount Kanchenjunga, and two of them scaled it, which is considered to be the toughest peak to climb. Sarma congratulated the team and handed a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to Jayanta Nath and Bhaskar Baruah, who successfully scaled the peak, and Rs 2.5 lakh to Kaushik Das and Sekhar Bordoloi, who narrowly missed out on the final ascent.
Sarma also informed that the state will be organizing the Khel Maharan from October this year. It will be a four-tier competition where participants from 27,000 villages will participate in five games and then proceed to constituency, district and state level. He said that their mission is to make sports an attractive career, drawing inspiration from the Centre’s Khelo India Games.
In the 36th National Games, 229 athletes participated in 21 disciplines, and 28 of them won medals. Sarma said that 19 of them were already engaged with the Assam government and offered government jobs to the remaining medalists. The chief minister emphasized the importance of promoting sports in the state and the country and encouraged the younger generation to pursue sports with passion.
