SAMBALPUR: The hike in the monthly fee for playing badminton at the indoor hall on the premises of Veer Surendra Sai stadium has irked residents of Sambalpur city.
The fee has been hiked from Rs 600 per month to Rs 1,000. Locals feel the sudden fee hike is discouraging for budding badminton players who practice regularly at the stadium.
On Friday, local badminton players submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik through the district administration, seeking revocation of the fee hike. Local badminton enthusiast Surya Panigrahi said people of different age groups play badminton at the indoor hall of VSS stadium regularly. All of them are not professional players but play for recreation.
“The massive fee hike after implementation of the ‘Pay and Play’ scheme of the state government will be a roadblock for the promotion of badminton in the region as everyone cannot afford to pay a hefty fee every month. The fee hike is unjustified,” he alleged.
Resident Suman Sahu said there are a few other private facilities in the city that charge the same exorbitant fee. Most people chose to play at the indoor hall of VSS stadium because of the reasonable fee. “At a time when the government is taking up initiatives to encourage sports, the price hike is unjustified.” The indoor hall of VSS stadium, which has three wooden badminton courts, was developed at a cost of around Rs 70 lakh.