Former Rajya Sabba MP and former Sports minister of unified Andhra Pradesh V. Hanumantha Rao appealed to Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao to see that multi-purpose sports complexes are in place in all the district headquarters.
In a letter to the Chief Minister and released to the media, Mr. Rao said though the cash incentives and the felicitations to outstanding achievers from the State, including to the likes of Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza and P.V. Sindhu, was a welcome move to encourage them, it was important for the Government to realise the need to put in place a system which would take care of the basic needs of young talent in the formative years.
“What the administrators should realise is the acute hardship the athletes face en route to stardom and not just bask in their moment of glory. Hence, it should be appropriate if the State Government takes necessary initiatives to produce more champions and Olympic medallists,” the former minister said.
“I appeal to you to allot at least six to eight acres of land for multi-purpose stadia in the district headquarters of all the Telangana districts and also three acres and two acres of land for high schools in mandal and village-level exclusively for sports,” Mr. Rao said. “It is a pity that most of the schools across the State don’t even have a playground,” he added.
“Since, so much effort is being put in to have new administrative set-up for all the new districts that are being created, it would be apt to take a critical look at the need to promote sports and have a system which supports sports in a big way from the grass-roots level,” Mr. Rao wrote.
