Keeping in view the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be hosted in Delhi, the government on Tuesday allotted Rs 150 crore for building and developing infrastructure for the mega sports event.
In the Budget presented to Lok Sabha, Finance Minister P Chidambaram increased the sports allocation to Rs 162.01 crore for the next financial year. Of this increase, Rs 150 crore has been allotted for the development of infrastructure for the 2010 Games.
The total budget for the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs is Rs 669 crore, of which Rs 600 crore has been earmarked as planned expenditure, while the rest Rs 69 crore has been specified as non-plan expenditure.
The total increase in the budget outlay for the Ministry comes to around 32 per cent.
In comparison to the last budget, the hike in planned outlay is around 37 per cent.
The budget provides a major hike on grant-in-aid to states. From Rs 24.96 crore it has been increased to Rs 58.51 crore. About 82 per cent of the budget allocated to the Ministry has been assigned for sports and youth services which comes to Rs 551.02 crore, Rs 124.99 crore more than the last year.
The budget provides Rs 42.79 crore for the development of sporting facilities in North Eastern states. Last year, Rs 38.90 crore was allotted for this purpose.
The grant-in-aid to states have been substantially hiked to Rs 58.51 crore. It is more than double compared to last year's amount of Rs 24.96 crore.
Commenting on the budget, Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi said though he is happy with it, ''It is not satisfying as far as sports is concerned.''
''We had asked the government to allocate Rs 200 crores annually for the next 10 years to prepare medal-winning athletes for the Commonwealth, Asian and Olympic Games. Unfortunately, this has not happened.
''We need more money for sports in view of the coming international sports events,'' he added.
More from rediff