Punjab to host World Cup Kabaddi in November

Amritsar: Punjab Government will organise the 4th edition of World Cup Kabaddi (men and women) in November with 25 countries set to vie for a record prize money.

Information and Public Relation Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said that strict NADA anti-doping guidelines would be implemented in the tournament and Punjab would seek more participation of countries from Europe, Africa, America and Australia to give Kabaddi a world class status. Majithia said that 11 world class stadiums have already been completed at the cost of Rs 96 crore and nine more stadia would be built by December. He said eight of these stadia have been made floodlit and sports stadium at Ghudda and village Badal would have synthetic track costing Rs 5 crore each. Majithia said that SAD-BJP Government was laying special emphasis on sports infrastructure and during 2007-12, Rs 200 crore were spent on this. To percolate sports culture at villages, the government distributed 5000 rural gyms and 9000 sports kits to village youth at the cost of Rs 22 crore and Rs 9.81 crore prize money distributed to players excelling in international events. He said to make sports attractive for Punjabi youth, three per cent quota was introduced in the government jobs and 10 eminent sports personalities were given category A jobs. Majithia said a record provision of Rs 91 crore has been made in the current budget and Rs 13 crore has been set aside for developing playgrounds in 1233 villages. He said that the government has already finalized the plan to establish Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Center of Excellence in Sports at Mohali with four regional campuses at Bathinda, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar at the cost of Rs 100 crore, in which 2000 budding sportspersons would be selected for training. PTI