By A Staff Reporter
IMPHAL | July 26
Youth affairs and sports minister, Letpao Haokip, today informed the House that the department will take befitting action against any individual if found using fake sports certificate to get government jobs.
The minister stated this while responding to queries raised by the Opposition bench during the voting and discussion hours for grants on the sixth day of the ongoing budget session.
Letpao said there has been complaint of certification done by an order of department of personnel in the year 1998. However the case has not been officially proved.
Clarifying on the lack of proper policy for sports, he said that the sports policy which was framed in 1984 in consonant with the Sports Authority of Manipur is very much alive.
The policy has been upgraded in 2003, he said and added that under which an Olympian medalist will be awarded with cash incentive of Rs. 2 crore and 25 lakhs for the participants.
He further revealed that altogether 70 meritorious persons have been provided with government jobs and a requisition has been sent to MPSC to recruit 21 coaches.
To further encourage sports in the state, he said, the department is planning to take up new schemes and projects under Khelo India project a vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi including development of local playgrounds across the state.
With regards to the status of the proposed Sports University, he said that a total of 325.90 acres of land have been acquired by the revenue department at Haraothel and the fencing for the same has been started.
In his response to measure taken to preserve indigenous games, the minister informed that the department has been providing financial assistance to altogether 53 sports association.
He further informed the House that the department is actively considering the establishment of Sports Governing Body.
The chairman of the body will be the chief minister, the YAS minister as vice chairperson with sports personalities as the members, he said adding inclusion of sports curriculum as schools syllabus be the responsibility of the body.
Responding to queries raised by the Opposition bench with regards to community and rural department (C&RD), the concerned minister Th. Bishwajit Singh, divulged that road connectivity in rural areas will be improved with the launch of PMGSY-II due to be launched by 2019.
Clarifying on the inability of the government to properly implement PMGSY, he pointed out that the Phase 11th of the PMGSY is categorized in two batches.
He said that the detail project report (DPR) for the first batch sent by the previous government was not approved due to some technical error. As a result, the government had to send another DPR and convinced the concerned minister, he said.
Bishwajit informed the House that the DPR was approved by the Centre and a sum of Rs. 587.70 crore has been sanctioned for construction of 121 roads with total length of 1,199.225 km including 6 long span bridges.
The DPR for the second batch for construction of 163 roads with total length of 1962 km including 45 long bridges with an estimate of Rs 1044 crores has been completed, said Bishwajit.
According to him, once the amount for the second batch is sanctioned the development works for rural areas can be improved without any delay.
With regarads to Pradhan Mantri Awaj Yojna Grameen (PMAYG) a DPR of Rs. 495 crores have been submitted to the ministry, he said.
Bishwajit, who is also holding the portfolio of power department, said a state policy for power has been framed in line with the promise made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to make the country power sufficient by March 2019.
Stating that the state has now enough power Bishwajit expressed his confidence that the vision of the present government to electrify the rural areas by December 2018 will surely be achieved.
As per 2001 census altogether 2582 un-electrified villages were identified by the department out of which 2362 has been electrified, he said adding that process to electrify the remaining 220 villages is under active consideration.
Of the total 220, 63 villages from December Chandel, Senapait, Churachandpur, Ukhrul, Tamenglong have been included in the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana while the 113 villages will be included in the off grid plan and 39 in grid plan under the funding of Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), said Bishwajit.
Moreover, he informed that for the procurement of 330 numbers of transformers of different capacities tender has been floated besides procurement of other relevant equipments to further enhance the electrification work.
In his response to queries relating to minority and other backward classes (MOBC) and scheduled Castes department, chief minister, N. Biren Singh, contended that the beneficiary list of the year 2016 was incomplete a reason for the inability to distribute the loan.
He further pointed out that none of the applicants who applied for housing loans during the same government did not give any formal applications but only appeared on the list which made the identification process almost impossible.
Nevertheless, fresh preparation has been started to provide loans to beneficiaries under PMAY.
Of the total 3000 students who applied for scholarship only ten percent genuine beneficiaries was found despite the fact that repeated publicity through advertisement have been made for the same.
The chief minister further informed the government is mulling to implement widow scheme.
The Manipur Legislative Assembly passed four more demands for grants for the year 2017-18 amounting to Rs. 1727,37,73,000 on the sixth day of the ongoing budget session today.
The Opposition MLAs who participated in the discussion are N. Loken, K Ranjit, D. Korungthang, Kh. Joykishan, Md. Abdul Nasir, AK Mirabai, RK Imo, Md Fajur Rahim, K. Meghachandra, DD Thaisii.
MLAs from treasury bench, P. Sarat and TT Haokip, also participated in the discussion.
After deliberate discussion and submission of observations from both the benches, the cut motions were withdrawn before passing it unanimously.
