Bhubaneswar, Feb 10 (PTI) With a focus on locating the sporting talents from nook and corner of Odisha, particularly from rural areas, the state government has decided to build sports complexes in all the 314 blocks for which Rs 4124 crore has been allocated by the state.

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This was stated by Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Suryyabanshi Suraj while addressing a press conference here.

“Our focus is now to find the sporting talents from rural areas for which sports complexes will come up in each block. The people in rural areas will get similar sporting facilities as available in urban areas,” Suraj said.

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He said the sports complex to come up over eight to 10 acres of land will comprise stadiums, athletics tracks, facilities for football, cricket, kho kho, kabaddi and other games.

Sports officers will be recruited at the block level and three known local sports persons will be posted as coaches to train the youths, the minister said.

The sports officers and coaches will select the talented sports persons at the block level and later they will be given training to excel in their respective field of sports, Suraj added.

The Odisha government has been sponsoring both the Indian Hockey teams (Men & Women) since 2018, the national rugby team and Kho Kho teams, there is no satisfactory representation from the state except in Hockey. The State government has also extended its support to the Indian Super League (ISL) team Odisha FC.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)