New Delhi/Guwahati, Dec. 20: The National Games will be held on schedule and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will, in all likelihood, attend the function, it was announced today.

It took a fortnight of round-the-clock preparations and a PowerPoint presentation by Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi to convince the Centre to put on the backburner Ulfa’s threat to disrupt the Games and give the final go-ahead.

February 9 has been fixed as the definite date and Manmohan Singh will be present either at the inauguration or the closing ceremony, sources said.

Sports associations of many states had felt it was not safe for their participants in the wake of an “appeal” by Ulfa dissuading them from taking part. Gogoi today made a PowerPoint presentation before sports ministry officials and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) members, including Suresh Kalmadi. The presentation was intended to drive home the point that there was no risk involved in holding the Games on schedule.

The Assam government today also donated a sum of Rs 50 lakh to the IOA for meeting the expenses of constructing and upgrading the Olympic Bhawan in New Delhi.

“The chief minister gave us his assurance that everyone will be safe in Guwahati. He explained that security arrangements had been taken care of as he had spoken to the Union home ministry as well,” a senior IOA official told The Telegraph after the meeting.

Gogoi and his government will now be very relieved, as the IOA has also expressed satisfaction over Games facilities, including the Games Village, which had been inordinately delayed.

The Assam delegation included Gogoi, newly-appointed chief secretary P.C. Sarma, sports commissioner V.S. Bhaskar and director of sports Dhruba Hazarika. Bhaskar also made a presentation before 189 IOA members on the status of the preparations.

Members of the Games technical conduct committee and of its accreditation committee will visit Guwahati after Christmas to assess the ground situation, including security and infrastructure.

Earlier this month, Delhi had expressed apprehensions on whether the Games could be held in February. The Centre argued that since neither the state government nor any NGO had come clean reassuring sportspersons across the country and the Games have already been postponed once, it could be deferred again. As it pointed out, it was not as though it was “Constitutionally binding” to hold the event in February.

Next day, a minister in Gogoi’s cabinet told sportspersons and the Centre through the media that the Games will be held on time.

During the meeting, state sports associations were asked to finalise their teams by January 15. Hence, the next few weeks would be packed with qualifiers for the National Games.