Sports budget increased by 305.58 cr

Country's tremendous success at the Tokyo Olympics seems to have infl uenced the sports budget as the central government on Tuesday allocated Rs 3062.60 crore for fi nancial year 2022-23 -- an increase of Rs 305.58 crore, compared to the last year's amount. In the last fi nancial year, the government had allocated Rs 2596.14 crore for sports, which was later revised to Rs 2757.02 crore.

The government's fl agship Khelo India programme witnessed an increase of Rs 316.29 crore in the 2021-22 budget, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.

The financial allocation towards the Khelo India programme, which got Rs 657.71 crore in the last budget, was increased to Rs 974 crore.

The total encouragement and awards to sports persons have seen a substantial increase from Rs 245 crore to Rs 357 crore.The Sports Authority of India's budget had been reduced by Rs 7.41 crore to Rs 653 crore. The SAI is the nodal organisation to manage nationals camps, provide infrastructure, equipment and other logistics to the country's sportspersons. The allocation towards the National Sports Development Fund has been reduced by Rs 9 crore to Rs 16 crore. (Agencies)