KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced at the state Assembly on Tuesday that 'Khela Hobe' Diwas (Day) will be observed in Bengal and about 50,000 footballs will be distributed on that particular day. Banerjee, however, did not specify the date of the Diwas.
"People have appreciated 'Khela Hobe', so we will observe Khela Hobe Diwas," Banerjee said. The slogan 'khela hobe', was made popular by Banerjee during her election campaign for the recently-concluded Assembly polls in which Trinamool Congress recorded a landslide victory by bagging 213 seats. The popular catchphrase has been recently adopted by Samajwadi Party (SP) workers in Uttar Pradesh, who have painted its Bhojpuri version – 'Khela Hoi'—on the walls of several cities across the state.
The state Sports and Youth Affairs department has already brought out a notification regarding the launch of Khela Hobe programme through which footballs will be distributed among registered clubs.
'Joyee' footballs, which are being manufactured by Refugee Handicrafts under the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises and Textiles department, will be distributed. The department keeps distributing different sports gears, including indoor games items, round the year.
Banerjee during her campaign had promised to distribute footballs among the clubs and school students and was often seen throwing football towards the crowd to popularise the Khela Hobe campaign.
TMC youth leader Debangshu Bhattacharya originally wrote the lyrics for Khela Hobe. Banerjee in her address over Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's speech said since her government had assumed power 278 crore mandays have been created, out of which 30.5 lakh mandays had been created through Matir Shristi project. "Huge number of rural roads and rural housing has been constructed in the state," she added.
About 10.30 crore people have been getting free ration under Khadya Sathi project and crop insurance has been introduced for the farmers' benefit.