Madurai :
The Madurai Jogging Club celebrated its 30th anniversary at its club premises in Madurai Race Course Stadium, on Sunday.
“The club was started with five members by Venkatavaradhan, Narayana Chettiar and S T Nova three decades ago. Over the years, its members’ strength increased gradually. At present it has 750 members,” said joint secretary L Sekar.
Ahead of 30th anniversary, the club conducted various games among themselves. The state’s sports minister S Sundararajan and co-operative minister Sellur K Raju distributed the prizes to the winners during the function. In his speech, the sports minister Sundararajan pointed out various measures that have been taken by the present AIADMK government to develop sports in the state.
“Earlier, only a sum of Rs 30 crore was allotted for the development of sports in Tamil Nadu. But, now it has touched Rs 210 crore,” he said. Besides, steps have been taken to build indoor, outdoor stadiums and hostels in each district. Old stadiums throughout the state would also be renovated at a cost of Rs1 crore, the sports minister said. Meanwhile, the club representatives wanted the sports minister to take steps to make toilet facilities and give concession to members of the jogging club to use the indoor stadium. They told the minister that the sports development authority demanded Rs 500 per month for their entry. However, the members said they played a major role in the construction of indoor stadium and also donated money for the same. And hence, it would be just giving 50 percent concession to the members, they said. State’s sports minister S Sundararajan, co-operative minister Sellur K Raju, Madurai mayor V V Rajan Chellappa and member of parliament R Gopalakrishnan, MLA A K Bose, sports development authority regional senior manager R K Durai Singh, district sports officer S Murugan also participated. Club’s president S Kathiresan welcomed the gathering and K Alagu delivered vote of thanks.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / TNN / July 28th, 2014