Disappointed with sports budget: AICS to take up low allocation with finance minister

New Delhi: Disappointed at the low budgetary support on sports this year, the All India Council of Sports on Tuesday decided to take up the matter with the Union Finance Minister to request him for a hike in the allocation. The AICS today held its second meeting with Vijay Kumar Malhotra on the chair and decided to send a delegation under his leadership to meet Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the issue of low allocation on sports in this year’s budget. [caption id=“attachment_2732754” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. AFP[/caption] “Members expressed their disappointment over the Sports Budget allocated this year and requested President, AICS to take up with Finance Minister for enhancement of budgetary allocation for Sports. A delegation of AICS Members should accompany the President, AICS to meet the Finance Minister,” said a release issued by the AICS after the meeting. The allocation for Sports Ministry got a marginal hike of Rs 50.87 crore from last year in the union budget for 2016-17, presented by Jaitley. The total allocation was Rs 1592 crore this year as against Rs 1541.13 crore last year. “Members hoped that President, AICS would be able to impress upon the Union Minister for Corporate Affairs to amend the Schedule VII of Indian Companies Act 2013 so as to allow the Companies to spend CSR Funds for the holistic development of sports instead of only for training,” it added. The members present decided to request HRD Ministry to set aside at least 5% of Education Cess for promotion of sports. It was also recommended to request Indian Olympic Association and National Sports Federations to provide Medical Insurance Policies to National Medal Winners and International Sportspersons. Malhotra and the members present congratulated Dipa Karmakar who became the first Indian Gymnast to qualify for the Olympic Games for her historic feat. Sports Authority of India Director General Injeti Srinivas gave a detailed report on the preparation of the Indian contingent for Rio Olympic Games. “Altogether 75 sportspersons in 8 disciplines have qualified for Rio Olympics. DG SAI mentioned that many more are likely to qualify and the total number may reach upto 110. “Shri Rajeev Yadav, Secretary, Sports mentioned that International Olympic Committee has been successfully persuaded to provide Indian Cuisine in the Games Village for the first time,” the release said. The members also appealed to Malhotra to take up with DoPT to amend the guidelines so as to provide a minimum of 5% posts reserved for sportspersons instead of up to 5% which has resulted in not making it mandatory to keep the vacancies reserved for sportspersons. It has also been decided to take up with appropriate Ministries for simplification of Custom Duty Tariff Rules in respect of those imported sports equipment and sports goods which have no recycling or re-sale value like javelin, pole vault pole, archery equipment, etc. AICS was constituted last year by the government as an advisory body to the Sports Ministry on the matters related to the promotion and development of sports in the country.