By Paritosh Pramanik
IN A classic case of opportunity in adversity the Divisional Sports Complex situated at Mankapur, off Chhindwara Road, has got a big financial boost from the Maharashtra Government. The State Government has sanctioned Rs 2.25 crore for maintenance and renovation works at the Complex.
Though the financial aid is just for one year, the money has come as a huge relief for the complex. The authorities were finding it really hard to generate funds for maintenance of the complex.
Thanks to the tireless efforts put in by Deputy Director (Sports) Subhash Rewatkar the Complex can now have enough funds for proper maintenance.
Rewatkar had been continuously following up with the state finance department after Sudhir Mungantiwar, Minister of Finance, Planning, and Forest Departments, assured him of financial aid for the maintenance and repair works.
Mungantiwar’s assurance came in July last year when the minister got furious over a faulty air conditioner and came to know about the lack of funds.
“It was in the month of July 2016 when the cooling system of the indoor sports complex went out of order during one of the meetings of the Forest Department. It was being attended by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Guardian Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule among others.
“A furious Mungantiwar had then ordered my suspension but when I informed him that there has been no maintenance of the air cooling system and electricity transformers for years, he assured me to provide funds from his department,” Rewatkar told ‘The Hitavada’.
Rewatkar had been following up the matter since then. But despite assurance the funds did not come easily.
“On the last day of the financial year (March 31, 2017), we were told that our proposal has been rejected. My department contacted Mungantiwar and apprised him about it. Mungantiwar immediately passed the order on the last day of the financial year,” Rewatkar said.
“It is only because Mungantiwar Sir we could get funds. We will now carry out maintenance works of various departments,” he said.
First in the maintenance list would be the air cooling system. “For more than five years there has been no maintenance of air cooling system of indoor complex. We will first take out repair work of it. Then we have to change the fire safety equipment. It is quite old now and has to be replaced,” Rewatkar said.
There are also plans to renovate the hostel building of Krida Prabodhini which is in poor condition.
“A meeting with Divisional Commissioner Anoop Kumar is slated on April 6. All these matters will be discussed and renovation and maintenance work would get green signal,” hoped Rewatkar. The Deputy Director said they were paying a fine of around Rs 50,000 per month due to non-functional and broken cut-outs and other parts of the electric transformers.
“We will start the repair work of these cut-outs and other equipment on war-footing. These are unnecessary fines we are paying to the electricity department. Once we replace the cut-outs, we would be able to save Rs 50,000 per month,” Rewatkar said.
RS 3.5 CR GENERATED LAST FINANCIAL YEAR
The Divisional Sports Complex has generated around Rs 3.5-4 crore last year through providing the indoor complex as well as other open space for various programmes.
“We collected membership money through badminton, boxing, gymnastics, judo, karate, yoga, gymnasium, cricket apart from other cultural and educational programmes at the indoor stadium. Last year, we have generated around Rs 3.5 to 4 crore. This money will be used in maintaining the synthetic track and football lawn ground,” said Rewatkar.
SYNTHETIC TRACK WORK TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED
The work on synthetic track has been temporarily suspended as the authorities as first completing the football ground.
“The Bermuda lawn grass on football field has to be heavily watered first. We are using around 200 water tankers daily for watering the grass. Heavy rolling will be done on the grass for a couple of days and then the grass will be trimmed. After that the last layer and track marking will be done and the synthetic track will be completely ready,” informed Rewatkar.
Rewatkar said water harvesting was the only option during summer days.
READY TO GIVE TRACK FOR WZ JUNIOR
ATHLETICS MEET
The Deputy Director of Sports informed said they would be more than happy if Nagpur District Athletics Association (NDAA) uses its synthetic track for the West Zone Junior Athletics meet in September.
NDAA recently got the hosting rights from state association and national federation and they have planned to hold the meet on synthetic track.
“Till now I have not yet received any letter from (Sharad) Surywanshi (Secretary, NDAA) regarding hosting west zone meet on synthetic track. We are ready to provide the track for the national level meet,” assured Rewatkar.
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