Agartala: The Tripura government on Saturday felicitated Olympian gymnast Dipa Karmakar, tennis star Somdev Devvarman, national women's' football team goalkeeper Laxmita Reang and Dronacharya awardee Bisweswar Nandi.
Chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, deputy chief minister Jishnu Devvarma and sports and youth affairs minister Manoj Kanti Deb handed over memento and honorary trophies to the sportspersons at an event here in the evening.
Lauding the players for their achievements, Deb said his government would work to develop sports infrastructure in the state. He called for Khelo Tripura, Sustho Thako Tripura (play Tripura, stay healthy Tripura) on the line of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Khelo India slogan. He added that sportspersons should be involved in annual sports events and other programmes to encourage the budding talents.
The chief minister added that he recently met Union minister of state for sports and youth affairs Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in New Delhi and sought his help to develop sports infrastructure in Tripura. Rathore agreed and sought 17 acres to set up a sports complex. The complex would have "everything necessary for sportspersons", Deb said.
Dipa was honoured with the Arjuna Award and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2016 and a Padmashree in 2017. She catapulted to fame for her Produnova vault at the 2016 Rio Olympics where she ranked fourth.
Somdev is a former professional tennis player who won back-to-back gold medals at the 2010 Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. He also represented India in the 2008 Davis Cup.
Dipa's coach Bisweswar Nandi, a renowned gymnast of his time, represented India several times at various international events, while Laxmita is the first Indian national women's football team member who represented as goalkeeper in the Under-16 Asian Football Tournament held in Beijing in 2016.
The sports and youth affairs minister said he would propose the Centre to allow Tripura to host the National Games, adding that stress would be laid on developing kabaddi, judo, basketball, football and other sports.
"It might take five to six years, but I am hopeful that we shall build the required infrastructure to host the National Games here," he said.
