State govt to focus on rural sportspersons: Sonowal

Chamata Football – The News Mill

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that the state government is resolutely working to scout sporting talents from rural areas and providing them better platform for honing their latent talent.

Sonowal said this while inaugurating the final march of 40th Naroram Barman Prize money football tournament played at Chamata Mini Stadium in Nalbari district on Sunday.

Inaugurating the final match where Mohammadan Sporting Association, Kolkata locked horns with ASEB, Sonowal appreciated the Chamata Sports Association which continued to organize this football tournament for last 40 years.

The Kolkata side won the match by 2-1 over ASEB.

The CM also recalled the names of yesteryear footballers Kumud Barman and Shankar Barman who represented Indian Football Team and Hasina Begum who played for India in Kabadi at the South Asian Games.

“Chamata has a rich tradition of sports and events like this would help in the promotion of rural sporting talents in the state”, Sonowal mentioned.

Underlining Centre’s ‘Khelo India’ initiative which aims at creating competitive sports environment in the country, Sonowal stated that the state government has also adopted a policy to augment sports infrastructure for providing better opportunities to the sportspersons of Assam.

“Under chief minister’s Samagra Gramya Unnayan Yojana, our government will develop and modernize 500 playgrounds in Assam during 2017-18. We have also taken up steps to set up one sports school in Guwahati and sports academy in the name of Arjun Bhugeswar Baruah,” Sonowal said.

Further saying that the government has set a target to make Guwahati as the sports capital of India, Sonowal mentioned about the FIFA U-17 Football World Cup to be played in Guwahati in October and also about the international cricket match between India and Australia to be played in the same month. He said that these international events will be followed by AIBA World Women Youth Boxing Championship in November.

“Successive international events will definitely help in making Guwahati an important sports destination in the world,” Sonowal added.

Chamata Sports Association also contributed Rs 1 lakh as contribution towards CM’s relief fund coinciding the football tournament which is organized as part of the Golden Jubilee celebration of the sports organization.

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