Bihar constitutes department of sports after criticism over rickety Patna stadium

Listen to Story After massive embarrassment over the bad state of affairs of Moin ul Haque Stadium in Patna which hosted a Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai earlier this week, the Nitish Kumar led Bihar government on Monday gave the nod to setting up a dedicated department to look after sports, sports persons and sports infrastructure in Bihar.

Elaborating on the jurisdiction of the newly constituted department of sports, the Additional Chief Secretary of the state cabinet department, S Siddharth said: "The department will focus on developing the state of sports in Bihar besides undertaking welfare activities for athletes. All sports infrastructure and sports universities will now fall under the ambit of the Department of Sports." Underscoring the need for a new department designated specifically for sports in Bihar, Siddharth said: "The state government will now promote sports and ensure superior participation of Biharis on national & international levels." The state government, its deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav in particular for his background as a cricketer himself, drew flak for the in Patna after the Ranji Trophy match.

Bihar Players Association (BPA) lauded the state government's move to constitute a department dedicated to sports in the state. BPA chief Mrityunjay Tiwari lamented that earlier all sports activities fell under the ambit of the Department of Art, Culture and Youth which was barely bothered about promoting sports activities in Bihar.

"The duo of Nitish Tejashwi is working hard for sportspersons in the state. They came up with MEDAL LAO, NAUKRI PAO earlier," said an elated Tiwari. India Today reported from the ground and found that the match continued even as Moinul Haque stadium's infrastructure was dilapidated and had no working scoreboard to apprise the audience of the actual match score on a real time basis..