Students at Young Astronomer Talent Search in Bhubaneswar (file picture)

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 28: The state government will organise youth camps in different parts of the state to promote sports and youth welfare activities.

This was discussed last evening during a meeting chaired by chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik. It has been decided that nearly 45 camps would be conducted involving 10,000 youths from all the blocks.

For this purpose, a few venues had been tentatively selected in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur and Rourkela by the sports and youth services department, he said.

Each camp would have mixed participation from all the districts. Sources said a wide range of activities, including yoga sessions, sramdan, sightseeing, cultural events, awareness programmes, community work, symposia and talent exhibitions, would be organised here. Eminent personalities from different fields would be invited to the camps to interact with the participants.

The sports and youth services department has been asked to prepare a detailed plan, schedule and modalities of the camps by November end, so that the camps can be held in December.

The Bharat Scouts and Guides, the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and the National Youth Kendras (NYK) would be involved in the camps.

“Moreover, youth clubs would be actively engaged in encouraging constructive sports and youth welfare activities in the state. To fulfil this objective, around 10,371 clubs operating at Panchyat levels would be given grants-in-aid of Rs 5,000 each,” said Patnaik.

During the meeting, the chief secretary advised the department to boost adventurous sports activities in association with the coastal guards and the NCC units and chalk out a plan for the augmentation of sports equipment and infrastructure in sports hostels. “A special academic curriculum for the inmates in sports hostels would be designed and emphasis would be given on providing high quality coaching, better gymnasiums and other facilities,” he said.

Young astronomers

The final camp of the Young Astronomer Talent Search (Yats)-2011 for school children would be conducted on December 12 and 13 in Bhubaneswar. Hosted by the Pathani Samanta Planetarium in collaboration with the Tata Steel, the state-level camp would have 120 students vying for the top 20 slots. The theme for this year is “My dream spacecraft”.

The Yats-2011 contest was open to students from Class VIII to X in which more than 1,000 students from all 30 districts had participated. In the first stage, the participating students were required to prepare a synopsis on the given theme.

It was followed by the zonal-level competitions in Belpahar, Keonjhar, Joda, Jajpur, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Jeypore. A total of 120 students qualified for the final round.

“The best 20 models of the state-level camp would be awarded on the eve of the 176th anniversary of Mahamahopadhyay Chandrasekhar Singhsamant Harichandan Mahapatra, popularly known as Pathani Samanta on December 13. The competition is being held for the fourth consecutive year,” said Subhendu Patnaik, deputy director (technical) of the Pathani Samanta Planetarium.