The Indian Parliament will deliberate on a resolution to transfer sports from the State List of the Indian Constitution to the Concurrent List, said Minister of Sports Vijay Goel. The minister, who recently made news for his antics on the presentation stage in the final of the recently concluded Kabaddi World Cup, finally seems to have some positive news about Indian sports.
In the meeting of the National Sports Federations (NSF) called by the Indian government, Goel said that NSFs would agree to make an effort to bring sports in the Concurrent List from the State List. However, the resolution can only be passed in the Parliament after consulting with the respective state governments.
Goel was reported saying to The Indian Express after the meeting, "We earlier had a meeting with some NSFs and in this second meeting today more than 20 NSFs took part. All of them wanted sports to be included in the Concurrent List of the Constitution instead of this item being included in the State List currently. So we took an important decision today and a resolution was passed by the NSFs present today that sports should be included in the Concurrent List."
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In 1988, this issue of transferring sports to the Concurrent List was put forth for the first time in the Union Cabinet, with the sole object to ensure effective implementation of the National Sports Policy. But unfortunately, the resolution had to be withdrawn in 2009 due to a lack of consensus.
The representatives present in the meeting agreed on publishing a quarterly journal on Indian sports to highlight the achievements of the sportspersons. The government also decided to restore the grants of 26 NSFs which have been included in the ‘Others’ category in the priority list of the Sports Ministry
When asked whether the inclusion of sports in the Concurrent List will have any bearing on the efforts of the Union Sports Ministry to pass the Sports Bill, Vijay Goel said, “Regardless of this issue, we have been pushing for the passage of the Sports Bill. I think there will be some more consultations before we bring the Sports Bill.”
However, there was a specific emphasis on the need to increase funds for the sports sector from the representatives. They expressed their gratitude to the sports minister for his transparency and his good governance.
