Chandigarh to host National School Games from Thursday

CHANDIGARH - Around 3,000 students from nearly 25 states and union territories will participate in the 55th edition of the National School Games which begin here Thursday.

The games, from Oct 22-27, include disciplines such as softball, fencing, gymnastics and dodge-ball and the organisers are leaving no stone unturned to make the event a success.

“We have learnt from past experience and we would try to make this edition a grand success. We have already made arrangements for food, accommodation and transportation of nearly 3,000 students coming to Chandigarh,” said Ram Niwas, union territory home-cum-education secretary, Tuesday.

“There is a budget of Rs.12.5 lakh (Rs. 1.25 million) for these Games. We have made adequate fire safety and medical arrangements. Ample police force will be mobilised to ensure security of participating teams.”

“There would be daily meeting with coordinators to make sure that everything is in place,” he said.

For the first time in the Games, dodge-ball has been included as a discipline.

“It (dodge-ball) was started from Chandigarh in 2005 and recently we have got recognition from School Games Federation of India (SGFI) to include the event,” said P.S. Brar, state sports organiser of union territory education department.