BCCI Finance Committee recommends Rs 50 cr fund for north-eastern states

Kolkata, Oct 9 - The Finance Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has recommended creation of a Rs 50 crore fund for Infrastructure Development for the North East States, an official said on Monday.

"I have been given to understand that the Finance Committee of the BCCI has recommended to allocate a separate fund of Rs 50 crores for development of Infrastructure in the Northeastern states. It is a much positive and a needed step," said Cricket Association of Bengal joint secretary Avishek Dalmiya.

The committee had met last week.

The entire structure and layout for development of infrastructure in the northeastern states was created by New Area Development Programme (NADP). Such structure included among others development of full size cricket grounds, budget stadiums as well as indoor practice facilities. It also included a separate academy for the northeast.

Based on such structure, the NADP committee of the BCCI chaired by Dalmiya had laid down the ways and means of executing it and followed up the implementation works.

Steps had been initiated for creating indoor facilities in Meghalaya and Nagaland and also procurement of necessary cricket equipments for starting school tournaments in Sikkim.

Once the recommendations are approved by the Committee of Administrators, the board would be able to either directly or through the associations take up all the balance infrastructure works which have been pending for a long time.

"Considering the pan-India approach, it is of utmost importance to ensure appropriate infrastructure is created in these states so that they are in a position to compete", said Dalmiya.

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IANS