Haryana govt brings new Sports University Bill

The Haryana government on Wednesday tabled a bill in the assembly for setting up a state-of-the-art sports university.

The Sports University of Haryana Bill, 2021 was tabled in the assembly after the government withdrew the previous Sports University Bill of Haryana, 2019 following "certain observations from the Centre".

The fresh bill, which will be taken up for discussion on Thursday, seeks to remove objections raised by the central government.

On March 8, the Haryana Assembly withdrew the Sports University Bill of Haryana, 2019, under which it had earlier announced to appoint cricket legend Kapil Dev as the chancellor.

In September 2019, then Haryana Sports Minister Anil Vij had announced that Kapil Dev would be the first chancellor of the Haryana Sports University at Rai in Sonipat district.

The bill was withdrawn after Sports Minister Sandeep Singh moved a resolution in the House, saying the state government has decided to take a "relook" at it on the Centre''s advice.

As there was no provision of nomination of the member by the UGC for the appointment of vice-chancellor in the previous bill, the Centre had asked the state government to "re-visit" the bill.

"The Search Committee shall consist of five persons, out of whom two shall be nominated by the Executive Council and two by the state government, one by the UGC," the fresh bill introduced in the House stated.

For the appointment of eminent sports personalities for posts of Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor, the bill added, "They will be eminent persons in the field of sports who shall either be sports persons of international repute or renowned sports administrators or sports academicians."