Divisional level sports officers to develop rural sports

Yasaratne Gamage

In a bid to uplift the standards of sports in the country and to improve the talents of the rural sportsmen and women, Sports officers to 20 main sports federations were appointed by Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage with effect from January 1st, 2012.

The newly appointed divisional level sports officers will perform their duties as coordinators to the Ministry of the various functions of the relevant sports federation including selection of sports personnel to sports events, administration, finance and sports related foreign tours.

Minister Aluthgamage said that 20 officers were sent to districts to coordinate main sports federations including eight in North and East under the first phase and soon there will be officers for the remaining associations.

The Minister further stated that lack of sports officers in these associations had resulted in slow improvement in the national sports and the sportspersons were unable to represent many national and international events due to improper functioning of associations.

The Ministry has decided to appoint sports officers who had served Colombo and main cities for a long period in the rural areas from January 01, 2012.

In addition, a service period of one year in North-East had been made mandatory for these officers, Minister Aluthgamage said.

Meanwhile measures are underway to select 1080 sports personnel to national sports squads aiming to increase the achievement at international sports events, Sports Ministry media sources said.

Accordingly islandwide sports personnel who are between 14 - 18 years of age at rural and school level would be recruited under the ‘Kreeda Shakthi’ programme.