Khela Hobe Diwas: 'Area specific games' to be held across state

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government is going to organise tournaments of "area specific games" in every block of the state and all wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on 'Khela Hobe Diwas' to encourage more youths to take part in sports.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier announced August 16 as 'Khela Hobe Diwas' and announced of distributing at least 1 lakh footballs on the day.

Adding grandeur to "Khela Hobe Diwas", now a decision has been taken, to organise area specific games in every block of the state. A tournament in each of the municipal areas will also be organised.

The state Youth Services and Sports department is the nodal department to organise the tournaments of "area specific games" with support of the local administration.

A senior state government officer said: "We are considering that football tournaments in most of the blocks. At the same time volleyball, cricket, kabaddi, badminton, karate and archery will also be played giving equal importance to different parts of the state. Athletics is also popular in many parts of Bengal. For example, volleyball is immensely popular at Bhadreswar and its surrounding areas in Hooghly. So the main idea is to organise area specific games on Khela Hobe Diwas. In that case a tournament on volleyball would be organised in and around Bhadreswar".

Sources at the state secretariat have stated that separate tournaments will be organised in each of the 144 wards of KMC while there will be one tournament in each of the remaining 124 civic bodies apart from that there will be separate tournaments for every block.

The officer added that mainly football tournaments woul be organised in every ward of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Already a high-level meeting was held in regard to the event that was to be organised following Covid protocol on "Khela Hobe Diwas".

"The main idea is to encourage youths in sports activities. But at no cost the Covid protocols will be compromised and necessary measures would be taken up in this regard," the officer

said.