Sports budget gets marginal hike

Increase of Rs 12 Cr in interim budget

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports got a marginal hike of around Rs 12 crore in the interim budget for 2014-15 presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament here.

In his interim budget presented in the Lok Sabha, Chidambaram allocated Rs 1,093 crore as plan outlay while Rs 126 crore was set aside for non-plan for a total figure of Rs 1219 crore.

The plan outlay has been kept the same with that of previous year and the increase in the total allocation was made in the Non-Plan outlay.

Interestingly, this year’s interim allocation was the same as that of the original outlay in the 2013-14 budget which was later revised to Rs 1207.76 crore (Rs 1093 crore Plan and Rs 114.76 crore Non-Plan).

Barring a few, most of the major heads got a reduced allocation.

The increase in the total outlay was due to an allocation of Rs 247.50 crore under State and UT Plan this year. Last year’s budget did not have this head. Out of the total outlay, Rs 631.9 crore has been allocated for sports and games — as against Rs 785.31 crore last year — while Rs 239.74 crore has been set aside for Youth Welfare Schemes as compared to Rs 296.77 crore.

The Scheme for the Benefit of North Eastern Area and Sikkim, will get a reduced allocation of Rs 82.65 crore this year as compared to Rs 109.40 crore last year.

Under the sports and games head, Sports Authority of India will get the highest amount of Rs 325.10 crore — a hike of around Rs 5 crore — while Rs 165 crore has been earmarked for Assistance to National Sports Federations — as against Rs 160 crore of last year. Rs 10 crore has been earmarked for talent search and training scheme. 

The allocation on the various schemes under Panchayat Yuva Krida aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA) has been drastically cut down from last year’s Rs 180 crore to just Rs 20 crore this year.

The NSDF has been allocated Rs five crore, the same as last year.

Among the various heads of Youth Welfare Schemes, Rs 142.79 crore has been earmarked for Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan as against Rs 123.92 for last year while the National Service Scheme also got a severely reduced allocation of Rs 16.36 crore, about Rs 60 crore less than that of last year.