Amit Shah felicitates medal-winning Indian delegation of World Police and Fire Games 2025

NEW DELHI: Union Home and Cooperation minister Amit Shah on Friday felicitated the Indian Police and Fire Services contingent, which secured a whopping 613 medals at the 21st World Police and Fire Games 2025, which took place in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

Speaking at the ceremony in New Delhi, he praised the participants for their outstanding performance and stressed the government’s increasing interest in sports.

Emphasising the five times rise in the sporting budget in the last ten years, Shah stated that the Modi government is eager to take the sport to every village. He urged scientific identification of talent and training techniques and stated that India hopes to find a place among the top five countries in the 2036 Olympics medal tally.

The Indian delegation received an incentive of Rs 4.38 crore at the event. Shah also mapped out preparations for the next World Police and Fire Games to be hosted in 2029 in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, and Kevadia, Gujarat. He appealed to each police contingent under the All India Police Sports Control Board to get at least one athlete to compete and aim for winning three medals each.

He stressed the importance of sports in instilling discipline, toughness, and mental robustness in the police personnel and appealed to the senior officials to take an active interest in sports along with their juniors. He also urged world-class coaching and expert physiotherapy services for police sportspersons.

The home minister elaborated on recent steps such as modifications in recruitment rules, setting up 25 outdoor games teams in every force, and combined CAPF teams.