New Delhi: A hike of Rs 258.2 crore was received by the sports ministry on Thursday after the presentation of the Union Budget by finance minister Arun Jaitley.
A total of Rs 2196.36 was allocated for the sports ministry, as compared to the Rs. 1938.16 from last year. But interestingly, the funds allocated to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) has been slashed by Rs 67.16 crore.
In the 2017-2018 financial year, SAI had received Rs 495.73 crore but they would receive Rs 429.56 this year.
However, the, ‘Khelo India’ programme has received the maximum amount with Rs 520.09 crore, in stark comparison to the Rs 350 crore that it had got last year. As a matter of fact, the Khelo India initiative makes up almost 23.67% of the total sports in this financial year.
The Government’s pet project Khelo India is set to receive Rs. 1262.79, which is again in stark contrast to the Rs 1047.19, which was allocated last year.
But the amount for the enhancement of sports facilities in Jammu and Kashmir has been reduced to Rs 50 crore instead of Rs 75, which they had allocated in the 2017-2018 financial year. The finance minister also stated that all the various National Sports Federations (NSF) would see an increase of Rs 40 crore, without mentioning anything about assisting the athletes who are gearing up for the Commonwealth and Asian Games.
In the previous financial year, the NSFs had received Rs 302.18 crore and now, they would get Rs 342 crore, which is an increase by Rs 41.82 crore.
The allocation for the National Sports Development Fund has remained at Rs 2 crore while the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) would continue to get Rs 1 crore.
Also, Rs 23 crore would now be allotted as incentives to sportspersons in place of the earlier Rs 18.13 crore. A 50 per cent cut was also seen in the scheme of Human Resource Development for Sports as it has now been reduced to Rs 5 crore from Rs 10 crore.