Maharashtra lags behind in sports plan implementation

MUMBAI: Five years after a scheme to build sports complex in each tehsil of Maharashtra was launched, only 10 such complexes have come up in the state. This at a time when Maharashtra is hosting the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune in October.

Of the planned 382 sports complexes at tehsil-level, only 10 have been completed, a senior official in the School Education and Sports department told media.

Of the 35 district-level sports complexes planned, only two have been completed, one at Dhule and the other at Jalgaon, both in North Maharashtra.

The Jalgaon sports complex was inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil, who hails from that district, earlier this month.

The scheme, launched in March 2003, envisaged setting up sport facilities at tehsil, district and divisional levels to encourage sports and sportspersons.

Of the seven divisional level "ultra-modern sports complexes" planned, not one has taken off. These were planned in Thane or Navi Mumbai (for Konkan revenue division), Nashik, Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Amravati and Mumbai.

In fact, in Mumbai, where the state government owns hundreds of acres of land, it has been unable to zero in on a suitable plot for setting up the divisional-level complex.

There was an attempt to locate the complex in a northern suburb where the government has leased land to a large media house but the effort has so far proved futile, the official said.