Mitra at the sports complex on Tuesday. (Biplab Basak)

Jalpaiguri, June 7: Selected matches of the Calcutta Football League (CFL) will be played in stadiums across the districts after the upgrade of the existing fields and infrastructure under the sports department, minister Madan Mitra said here today.

Mitra said the Mamata Banerjee-led government would make sports compulsory for students between classes IV and XII. He was inspecting the Jalpaiguri sports complex here after a felicitation. “We are determined to create sports persons who will shine in all fields,” sports minister Mitra said.

He said big soccer matches would be brought to the districts to strengthen football skills.

“We are currently looking at the state of the grounds and from next year we will arrange for teams like Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and other front-ranking teams to come and play some of their matches on these grounds. This will give the game a boost and an opportunity for the youth to watch the matches directly and not on television,” said Mitra, who was felicitated by the District Sports Association.

The minister was critical about the manner in which the sports department had been run by the Left Front.

“All over the state we will begin constructing stadiums and develop grounds that the Left Front had promised and left unfinished. There are people who have no interest in sports but have with them the keys to the playgrounds and stadiums. I appeal to them to hand them over to appropriate officials within a week,” Mitra said.

He was also critical of former municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya for the state of the Kanchenjungha Stadium in Siliguri. “He has left many works unfinished and we will arrange for floodlights for the stadium,” he said.

The minister said a modernisation package would be soon announced for the sports complex here. He said Rs 1.4 crore had been sanctioned for a swimming pool and an indoor stadium in Cooch Behar.

“We will also renovate the virtually ruined stadium in Chanchal in Malda that has been lying in neglect for the past three decades,” he said.

Mitra said he would take two more weeks to complete the assessment of the sports infrastructure across the districts.

“After that I will sit with the chief minister and draw up a district-wise plan. As far as the Jalpaiguri sports complex is concerned, there is a need to lay a track for athletes. Dressing rooms, hostels and a press box are also lacking. We will approach the North Bengal Development Council for funds,” Mitra said.

North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb, who was also present at the felicitation, assured Mitra that funds would not be a problem.

Later, both the ministers visited Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, where final year student, Monojit Roy, had died of a drug overdose on Saturday.

Mitra told college principal Jyotirmoy Jhampati to involve students in sports and other extra curricular activities.

“I have told him that this government will not tolerate consumption of liquor and drug on campus,” he told The Telegraph later over the phone.

Jalpaiguri police chief Anand Kumar said samples of Monojit’s blood and viscera would be sent to Calcutta for forensic examination.

“We have also sent the drugs found in Monojit’s room in the hostel to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital to find out what he had consumed,” Kumar said.