State budget gives special focus on sports: Gaurav Gautam

Chandigarh – Haryana’s Minister of State for Sports, Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship, Sh. Gaurav Gautam, while welcoming the budget for the year 2025-26 presented by Chief Minister Sh. Nayab Singh Saini in the Assembly, said this budget will provide opportunities to the youth of Haryana in accordance with the sports policy of the state. In the coming time, new sporting talent of the state will bring glory by winning medals in national and international competitions.

He said many new proposals have been made in the budget 2025-26 to further strengthen Haryana’s sports infrastructure, provide better resources to emerging players and establish the state as a global sports power.

He said the new sports excellence centers will be opened in 5 universities of the state, namely Maharishi Dayanand University, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Kurukshetra University and Indira Gandhi University, Rewari. He said in the budget, it has been decided to start the “2036 Vijayibhav” scheme with the aim of bringing maximum medals by the players of Haryana in the Olympic Games to be held in the year 2036 for which a provision of Rs 20 crore has been made. This is a unique initiative taken in the budget of any state. This will definitely encourage the players of Haryana and as per the vision of the Chief Minister, Haryana will make its mark in the 2036 Olympics.

Similarly, a provision has also been made in the budget for the proposal of Khiladi Bima Yojana in the financial year 2025-26, under which the players will be given medical coverage of up to Rs 20 lakh, whose premium will be paid by the government. He said in the same way, in order to motivate and encourage the players, a reward of Rs 50 lakh, 30 lakh and 20 lakh will be given to the 3 best akhadas every year at the state level.

He said that for better operation and maintenance of sports complexes of the state, two sports complexes will be given to run on PPP mode on pilot basis.

He said it is the priority of this government to keep the youth away from drugs. Under this, the Haryana Sports Equipment Provision Scheme has been started in 2023-24, in which there is a provision to allocate equipment for eight sports like volleyball, football, basketball, handball, boxing, wrestling, judo and cricket through municipal bodies and panchayats.