The Government of Odisha has allocated Rs 1,217 crore for the Department of Sports and Youth Services (DSYS) in the State budged for the financial year 2023-24. This was announced by DSYS todayd. According to a DSYS press release, the allocation has been increased by almost eight times from Rs 149 crore in 2017-18.

“Sports has been one of the priority sectors of the Government over the last decade. With an aim to give a fillip to the sports sector in the state, the Government has over the past few years significantly enhanced the budgetary allocation dedicated to infrastructure development, coaching, competitions and hosting major sporting events,” the DSYS release mentioned.

“Creation of a robust and quality sports infrastructure constitutes a key component in the long-term strategy of the Government for promoting sports. Keeping that in view, the Department in the past few years has been consistently focusing to provide good quality sports infrastructure at various levels in the State for multiple sports disciplines”.

An amount of Rs 1,044 crore has been allocated for development of different sports infrastructure in the State. Odisha is one of the few states which is investing in sports at this scale.

Scientific training and coaching by professional coaches help the sports persons to make the best use of their abilities and techniques so that the chances of success in competition are increased. A sum of Rs 30 crores has been earmarked for training and coaching under different sports disciplines.

The State has received national and global accolades for successfully organising various national and international sporting events in the State. The Department co-hosted FIFA U-17 Women World Cup 2022 and successfully hosted the FIH Hockey Men World Cup for the second time in a row. A sum of Rs 24 crores has been allocated for organizing various sports competition.

In order to encourage the sports persons of the State and to motivate them for winning medals at various national and international sports competitions Rs 10 crore has been provisioned under Incentives and Awards Scheme.”

DSYS, however, has not thrown light on the purpose for which an amount of Rs 109 crore has been earmarked in the 2023-24 State Budget for sports.

Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari today presentded the 2023-24 State Budget Rs 2,30,000 crore in the Odisha Assembly. The highest increase of 34 per cent was made for sports and development of other infrastructure facilities like roads, bridges, airports.

It may be noted here that Odisha Government had allocated Rs 911 crore for sports in annual budged for the year 2022-23. The allocation was Rs 506 increase compared to Rs 405 crore for the year 2021-22.