CHENNAI: The increase in the overall budget for Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of just Rs 50 crore from Rs 2776.92 crore (2019-2020 revised from Rs 2181.90cr) to Rs 2826.92 crore seems insignificant. But the sports ministry clarified that there has been a substantial jump in budget allocation when compared to 2018-19, especially in sports.
A big Rs 291.42 crore rise for the ministry’s flagship programme Khelo India seems to be the highlight. According to the ministry, sports expenditure last year was Rs 1296.95 crore, while this year’s budget is Rs 1999 crore, an increase of 54 per cent (Rs 702.05 crore) compared to 2018-19.
The ministry said that during the current year too, there is an increase in the budget by Rs 400 crore — from Rs 1599 crore to Rs 1999 crore. Sports secretary RS Julaniya felt it’s a good budget for sports. “It meets our present needs and provides for future aspirations. Impact on our efforts of talent scouting and improving quality and quantity of sports training would be in 2021-22, as there is always a time lag," he said.
"Sufficient funds were made available for sports and additional funds were provided in supplementary demands. The provision of Rs 2099.42 crore for the next financial year should be seen in the light of expenditure of Rs 1296.95 crore in 2018-2019. The provision is sufficient to meet our present and projected needs for sports," he said.
Sports Authority of India’s budget has been reduced from Rs 615 crore (2019-2020 revised) to Rs 500 crore. Interestingly, the original figure was Rs 450 crore. What seems perplexing is that incentives for sportspersons has been brought down to Rs 70 crore as compared to Rs 111 crore (2019-2020, revised from Rs 89 crore).
This steep fall is because the ministry has cleared all backlog in special cash awards this year. There has been a reduction in assistance to NSFs from Rs 300 crore (revised from Rs 450 crore) to Rs 450 crore. That, according to the sports secretary is “because all camps and training now are under Khelo India."
On SAI’s budget cut, he said that it was, “because all STCs are now under Khelo India. We rationalised and simplified the budget, accounting for better accountability and impact.” Understandably, for various schemes of Khelo India, there has been an increase of Rs 291.42 crore — from Rs 724 crore (2019- 2020 revised allocation) to 1015.42 crore.