The Times of India 04.10.2013
Civic body starts special cell to promote sports activities
THANE: Being a sports enthusiast Thane municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta has started a special sport cell at the Thane Municipal Corporation's headquarters to promote the sports activities in the region, while encouraging budding talents in various sporting disciplines. The recently opened sports cell is headed by sports officer Minal Palande, who has won awards for is a Shiv Chhatrapati awardee in kabaddi.
"The idea is to create sporting facilities for youngsters in various nodes in the town and boost their moraletime to time. Basic facilities are a must in order to produce sportspersons, but we lacked such facilities. The sports cell will have all sportspersons who were absorbed in the corporation on sports quota got their due being part of this special wing to channelize their experience," said the civic chief.
Apart from Palande, the cell also has a bunch of 12 sportspersons who had been recruited in the corporation on sports quota in 1985 and 1989. A fund of Rs 10 lakh has been sanctioned to set up an independent office and carry out initial work. The workforce will scout for amenities and reserve plots for playground in various locations.
"We have been assigned the task of earmarking reserved and amenities plots and prepare a list of it and the work will begin next week. We have sought to have an engineer and a surveyor to kick off the ground work. Once the survey is over we will submit a detailed report with budgetary requirement for developing the plots into sport facilities," said Palande.
According to sources there are more than 60 plots that have been rendered useless for years, which could be turned into playgrounds. "We will create sporting abodes on the lines of the state government's Krida Prabodhini, which trains talented children in sports fields of their choice close to their home. At least two plots will be taken up for development by this year end to resume sporting activities," said Palande.
The TMC plans to form its own teams in various disciplines to participate in different level of competitions. So far, the corporation has 30 employees who were appointed on their sporting feats. After 1989 TMC did not recruit people on the basis of sporting exploits.
