The 2016-17 audit report of the Delhi government by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) found that the Directorate of Education (DoE) has “accorded low priority towards development of sports facilities/activities in NCT of Delhi”.
Of the 13 districts in Delhi, three districts did not have a single sports facility whereas six districts with 7.69 lakh students did not have any sports facility other than swimming pools, noted the report.
Delhi School of Sports
It added that the Delhi School of Sports had not been set up as of June 2017 despite acquiring land for the purpose in 2003 and schemes were not implemented effectively as there were delays in releasing funds and shortage of sports coaches.
The report said that The National Sports Policy was prepared in 2001 while the Delhi Sports Policy was drafted in 2004 by the DoE and was approved in 2008. It was subsequently amended in 2009 and 2011, but till July 2017 the policy was not approved.
The report also highlighted that ₹13.22 crore of the planned budget remained unspent during the 2014-17 period.
The DoE is supposed to release grants-in-aid to the Delhi State Sports Associations for organising coaching camps, official national and State championships and purchase of sports equipment.
However, the report noted that the DoE did not release any grants-in-aid in 2016-17 as it could not finalise the procedure to be followed for selection of sports associations for releasing grants and the entire budget provision of ₹1 crore remained unspent.
