The Youth Services and Sports Department is contemplating the use of the services of physical education directors of government first-grade colleges to take care of the taluk and the district stadiums.
They will also be given the responsibility of training athletes at these stadiums. Minister of State for Youth Services, Sports and Fisheries K. Abhayachandra Jain said that he wants to make better use of the physical education directors. “There are around 200 physical education directors in the State. They stand at a better position to take care of the stadiums and lend their expertise for budding sportspersons,” Mr. Jain told The Hindu here on Sunday.
Mr. Jain said that he had begun the practice in Udupi and it will shortly be replicated in Raichur. Roshan Kumar Shetty, the physical education director of Dr. G. Shankar Government First Grade College, Udupi, has been made the in-charge Assistant Director of the Udupi District Stadium, which is adjoining the college premises.
“This has shown results and there is a marked improvement in the facilities at the stadium,” Mr. Jain said. Consequently he has entrusted Mr. Shetty with the responsibility of making arrangements for athletes for the upcoming 19th Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Tournament that starts from April 30 in Mangaluru.
Mr. Jain said that such a measure would address the shortcoming in the Youth Services where people holding the posts of Assistant Directors lacked the knowledge of sports. “They get promoted from the post of clerk and reach the post of Assistant Director,” he said. These Assistant Directors lacked the knowledge of the requirements at the stadium and the athletes.
The Minister said that he would be raising the issue before the Chief Minister and also the Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande. It would be a win-win situation for the department as it would save money on one end and use the expertise of physical education directors for the development of sports in the State, he added.
Earlier Mr. Jain inaugurated the sports meet for the district working journalists on Sunday.
‘There are around 200 physical education directors in the State’
‘It will be a win-win situation for the department’
