National Sports Assembly discusses proposals to revolutionise sports

New Delhi, Dec 18 (IANS) A host of sports personalities, who have represented India in various sports at different levels, participated in India's first National Sports Assembly here on Saturday to discuss several proposals that would revolutionize the sports in the country.

The assembly, organised by IMT Ghaziabad in association with NGO Sports: A Way of life, mooted that there is a need to change the way we look at sports today. The proposals suggested the steps, which are required to visualise and transform the sports from grassroots level i.e from kindergarten to senior level.

Speaking at the assembly, hockey Olympian Ashok Dhyan Chand gave a call for developing sports culture in the country.

"We cannot even think of either the welfare of sports or of the sportspersons. So far we have not been able to register huge success at the Olympic stage as we have been lagging behind in the medal tally despite a promising potential in several Olympic-related games. We have a huge population and if sincere efforts are being made, then we deserve better than whatever we have been able to achieve," he said.

The assembly after due deliberations and discussion agreed that a formal request be made to government agencies to develop at least one Model Sports Village in each state and this centre should work as a magnet and around it all sorts of sports-related developments be initiated in adjoining districts and villages.

Another proposal was that the government should get the sports ground made free from the clutches of land mafias so that kids can play there.

"Time is ripe and it is the right time when sports infrastructure will be improved in the country if the government really wishes to see growth in soft power in terms of our sportspersons playing some active role in civil society," said former India hockey player Zafar Iqbal.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kanishka Pandey, Head Sports Research Centre, I M T Ghaziabad, said that the sports assembly was on the lines of Indian Parliamentary sessions, where every member discusses various government proposals.

"All the members of the 1st National Sports Assembly, today discussed each of the proposals mooted after a research, and their suggestions were incorporated and all the proposals passed here will be documented and will be forwarded to the central and state governments, the key stakeholders assigned to frame sports policies," said Pandey in a release.

"We look forward to the suggestions of this assembly finding due considerations at the policy framers level," he added.

The assembly also mentioned that the school admission criteria should also include consideration of sports knowledge, as only then the parent will change their perception about sports.

Another important proposal that found majority support was there should be a mandatory provision to include at least one sports advisor to each parliamentarian and legislator as they will help in that department to include sports activity under their area of operation.

The IMT National Sports Assembly will be organised thrice a year.

Rachna Govil, Md Jalaluddin Rizvi, Gopal Saini, Suresh Mishra, Arvind Chhavara, Mahavir Singh, Rajkumar Bainsala, Vineet Kumar, Danish Mujtaba, Shiv Singh, Sandeep Gupta, Naveen Kumar Poonia, Preetam Thakral, Sandeep Singh Man, Surendra Khanna, Akram Shah, Nicky Balaji, Ashok Dhawan, and Akshay Chaudhary were also present in the assembly.