CHENNAI: THE money allocated for sports in the Union Budget turned out be a mixed bag, especially with the Olympics only a few months away. While the Centre decided to hike allocation for national sports federations (NSFs), it also proposed to slash the amount earmarked as incentive to sportspersons.
The allocation for sports for the financial year 2021-22 has been reduced to Rs 2596.14 crore, down Rs 230.78 crore from last year’s Rs 2826.92. It is still Rs 795.99 crore more than the revised budget of 2020-21, which was Rs 1800.15 crore. However, the reduced figures in the revised budget could be attributed to the lack of activity caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
As per the budget presented by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday, the amount earmarked as assistance to NSFs has been hiked by Rs 35 crore to Rs 280 crore in comparison to the previous fiscal year. But the incentive to athletes has been slashed by Rs 17 crore to Rs 53 crore.
The budget proposed the biggest reduction to the government’s flagship sports programme, Khelo India. In comparison to the previous year’s allocation of Rs 890.42 crore, only Rs 657.71 was earmarked for the programme, a cut of Rs 232.71 crore. Sports Authority of India (SAI) though managed to get a substantial hike of Rs 160.41 crore from last year’s Rs 500 crore.
The SAI manages nationals camps, provides infrastructure, equipment and other logistics. Interestingly, while allocation under all heads in the revised budget for 2020-21 decreased due to the lockdown, SAI’s share increased to Rs 612.21 crore from Rs 500 crore. Meanwhile, the budget for the National Sports Development Fund has also been halved to Rs 25 crore. The allocation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games-SAI stadia renovation was also cut to Rs 30 crore from Rs 75 last year.
The National Welfare Fund for Sportspersons will get the same amount of Rs 2 crore as earlier. Similarly, at Rs 50 crore, there was no change in the allocation for the enhancement of sports facilities in Jammu and Kashmir.