Addressing public meeting in Meerut, Prime Minister said when the UP will play, India will play and march ahead giving a new move momentum to promotion of sport culture among youth in Meerut and UP and in India as a whole. It will train 1000 sportspersons every year and university will usher in new opportunities for youth.
Taking a dig at the previous SP-BSP governments without naming the parties, Modi said the daughters were not safe five years ago in Meerut, now they along with the other youth are marching ahead. There used to be a mafia raj for grabbing lands and Meerut was turned into the “tournaments of mafias”, but that has gone now under the Yogi Raj, he claimed.
Prime Minister said Meerut was the ‘karamsthali’ of Major Dhayan Chand and the government named country’s highest prize in sports-Khel Ratna- after him last year as a tribute to Hockey legend and the sports persons across the country.
He said the sportspersons need four basic ‘shustras” to excel in sports- resources, modern training facilities, international exposure and transparency in selection for events. “We prioritised to ensure that they get these four basic ‘shustra’ for the last few years in India”, he said.
Commenting on the upcoming Major Dhayan Chand Sports University, Union Sports and Youth Affairs, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, who is also MP from Hamirpur, said it would start a new era for promotion of sporting talents of UP and of the country in days to come.
Thakur said Prime Minister kept motivating the sporstpersons and Olympians. When they came back home from Tokyo Olympics, he interacted with them. Prime Minister interacted with Meerut’s Olympian Priyanka Goswami, a 25 km race walking athlete and other sports persons in Meerut”, he said.
