The Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee has suggested to the Indian Sports Council a ten-point programme for effective development towards achieving excellence in sports. These suggestions were placed before the meeting of the Indian Sports Council held here today under the Chairmanship of Shri V.K. Malhotra, Chairman of the Council. The full text of Prime Minister’s suggestions is as under:

1. Inspired by the heart-warming performance of our players and athletes in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and in the Asian Games in Busan, we should now aim at winning at least six medals, with two Golds, at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Similarly, our aim at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 should be to win at least 15 medals with six Golds. Let us recognize that making India a strong player in diverse international sports is an essential element of achieving our goal of making India a Developed Nation by 2020.

2. However, let no player or athlete take a short-cut in trying to achieve success in sports. Recent reports of drug use are distressing. I do not believe that there is truth in all these cases. Nevertheless, our sportspersons should keep away from such temptation.

3. We have to make the working of the Sports Authority of India and the various sports federations more transparent and accountable. These institutions should recognize that our sportspersons, and not administrators and officials, are the most important entity in our strategy to achieve excellence in sports.

4. Good coaches should be appointed to remove shortcomings in sports training in India and to make it world-class. Our promising sportspersons should be given maximum opportunities for training abroad. Wherever needed, we should bring good foreign coaches to train the best sports talent in India.

5. We should ensure a secure and attractive career track, both in government and in the private sector, for medal winners in the National Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the Olympics.

6. All business houses and commercial establishments that take loans from banks and financial institutions should be encouraged to set aside some resources for the development of sports. We should create maximum incentives for them to create sports infrastructure in their neighbourhood and to sponsor sports events at the district, State, national and international levels.

7. We have to create a robust sports and health development culture in India, involving all sections and all age-groups of our population. For this, the most important step to take is to make sports a compulsory part of the school curriculum. Let not carrying their heavy schoolbags become the only physical exercise for our children. We should expand sports infrastructure and facilities in schools, colleges and universities, with adequate provision of resources by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and State Governments.

8. We should create an effective National Sports Talent Search system, so that extraordinary sporting talent is identified at a very young age. Such promising girls and boys should be picked up for a special track of training and development.

9. In our country people usually stop playing any sports once they complete their school or college education. Adults, especially women, feel shy of playing or exercising in public places. We have to change this reality. I would like that every able-bodied Indian should devote at least one hour in a week to sports and physical exercise. To achieve this objective, society should come forward to create low-cost facilities to benefit maximum number of people. The guidelines for the MPLAD scheme may be suitably amended, so that MPs can make their funds available for this purpose. All new housing colonies should be mandated to create broad-based sports facilities.

10. I would like to assure the countrymen, especially our young men and women, that speedy development of sports will not be thwarted on account of shortage of resources. The All India Council of Sports has made a good suggestion that, in order to achieve the above objectives, the provision for sports in the Tenth Five Year Plan should be raised five times. I accept this suggestion and place it before the meeting of the National Development Council for its approval. At the same time, I urge all the State governments to fully discharge their responsibility in the promotion of sports.

I would like to emphasise that achieving the above objectives cannot be the responsibility of the Sports Ministry alone, or of the government alone. The Centre and State Governments, non-governmental organizations, business establishments, and other constituents of society have to work together in a spirit of partnership.

While concluding, the Prime Minister said, ~These are only my suggestions. I would like that the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, together with the All India Council of Sports, hold wide consultations with all the stake-holders and prepare, within the next 100 days, an effective National Action Plan to achieve Excellence in Sports~.