Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MD)
Mangaluru, Apr 28: "There was lack of infrastructure at Mangala Stadium to organise the national-level 19th Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championship, but now the problem is solved and the Federation Cup will be inaugurated on April 30. The event is not only for athletes, but also for the general public of Dakshina Kannada district. It is our programme," said district incharge minister B Ramanath Rai.
He was speaking after inaugurating the doping test centre at Mangala Stadium here on Tuesday April 28.
Addressing the media, Rai said, "Chief minister Siddaramaiah has announced that he will release Rs 1 crore for the event. We have already received Rs 50 lac and the remaining amount will be released later. Mangaluru City Corporation has granted Rs 5 lac, and the department of environment and ecology has assured that it will grant Rs 10 lac to the sports department."
Addressing the gathering, minister for youth services and sports Abhaychandra Jain said, "Our dream of organising the 19th Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championship has come true. We have given more preference to the synthetic track here in Mangala Stadium. Toilets are repaired, and for water supply we have dug a borewell. We are also improving the lawn inside the stadium."
He further said, "In the four-day event, 34 athletes from Karnataka will take part. The exhibition ground is all set for the athletes to train. On the day of the inauguration, two hours of cultural programmes will be held, where various cultural teams from our state will participate. To attract the athletes and the crowd, cultural programmes will be organised in a special manner.
"This event is important as national athletes will get a chance to qualify for the 21st Asian Athletics Championships 2015 to be held in June at Wuhan, China, Beijing and for the Rio Olympics," he added.
Dakshina Kannada District Athletics Association president Manjunath Bhandary said that almost 30 athletes from North India have already reached Mangaluru and that the Association has made arrangements for their stay. "Tomorrow we are expecting more athletes to arrive and we have already arranged accomodation for them," he added.
Director for youth empowerment and sports department, Bengaluru, H S Venkatesh said that 48 sports equipment have been purchased at a cost of Rs 65 lac.
Dakshina Kannada deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim said that the 90% of the work has been completed. "The games will be stopped for a few minutes if it rains, but everything is under control. The public are allowed to watch the sports and there will be no entry fee. We are expecting a crowd of at least 25,000 people," he said.
On this occasion SCDCC Bank chairman Dr M N Rajendra Kumar donated Rs 5 lac to the event by handing over a cheque to minister Abhaychandra Jain.
MLC Ivan D'Souza, former mayor Shashidhar Hegde and others were also present.