Govt should realise sports play big role in development of citizens: HC

Sports play a significant role in the development of people and nation and it is high time the government gives it equal importance than the "commercialisation and concretisation mantra", the Bombay High Court has said. A progressive state can never be oblivious of such needs of the society, a division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Jitendra Jain on Monday. It quashed the Maharashtra government's 2021 decision to relinquish 20 acre land in Navi Mumbai for a 'Government Sports Complex' and shifting it to a remote place at Mangaon in Raigad district, 115 km from the existing site. In 2003, the land was earmarked for the sports complex. In 2016, the planning authority allotted a portion of it to a private developer for residential and commercial purposes. The HC said the authorities are required to be alive to not only the present but the future rights of citizens for open places, playgrounds and sports complexes. "We may observe that considering the present plight of metro citie