Hyderabad: Sports is a neglected sector for the Telangana government given that only Rs 63.7 crore has been allotted for sports in the 2016-17 budget, which is not even 0.005 per cent of the total expenditure of the massive Rs 1,30,415.87 crore proposed in the budget.
Out of the Rs 63.7 crore, only around Rs 50 crore is used for development of sports and the remaining goes into annual expenditures such as salaries of staff, etc.
While the state government made a grand gesture in rewarding Olympic Silver medalist P.V. Sindhu with Rs 5 crore, it has never displayed the same encouragement towards other younger sportspersons who have won medals at international sporting events.
An example is the Telangana government’s apathy towards nine sportspersons from Telangana State Sports School, Hakimpet who won medals at national and international sporting events held at various countries including Thailand, China, Qatar and Turkey in weightlifting and sepak takraw, apart from 11 others who participated in international events.
One such talented student of the Sports School is R.V. Rahul who won two Golds and one Silver medal in the Junior Asian Weight-lifting Championship held in Doha last year. He also won a Silver in the second Youth Olympic Games held at Nanjing, China in 2014.
And another example is of D. Srikanth, a poor tribal student from Nalgonda studying in the Sports School, who won a Gold and a Bronze medal in athletics at the World School Games in Turkey this year. He was not given any reward for his performance.
Dr S. Someshwar Rao, president of the Physical Education Teachers Association of Telangana, told this newspaper, “There is an immediate need for incentives to be given by the government even for mandal, district and state level winners. Many of these students are from poor backgrounds and if the government wants these students to take up sports as a career then incentives are necessary. Sports performance should be graded with other subjects.”
