CM Bhagwant Mann Dedicates 1,000 Village Sports Grounds Across Punjab in Anti-Drug Push

SHAHPUR, Fatehgarh Sahib — Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Wednesday handed over 1,000 newly built rural sports grounds to village panchayats across Punjab, accelerating a state-wide drive to pull youth away from narcotics and rebuild rural athletic pipelines. The ribbon-cutting at Shahpur village in the Amloh Assembly segment scaled the administration's tally of operational 'Pendu Khed Maidan' facilities to 1,764, pushing past the midway mark of its 3,100-ground target.

Each site comes fitted with equipment kits for football, hockey, volleyball, and cricket. The objective is direct: swap synthetic drugs for open turf. Addressing village delegations and regional lawmakers in Amloh, Mann lashed out at previous administrations for starving villages of rural development grants and leaving youth without recreational outlets.

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By sweating it out on these sports grounds, our youngsters will make Punjab proud across the world in the coming years. Our government is committed to making Punjab drug-free. We are dedicating another 1,000 sports grounds to the people today because our youth need proper facilities and opportunities to excel in sports.
Bhagwant Singh Mann, Chief Minister of Punjab

Phased Rollout Under 'Yudh Nashean Virudh'

The launch marks the third phase of the state's flagship sports infrastructure programme, tied directly to its anti-narcotics enforcement blueprint, 'Yudh Nashean Virudh'. The government activated the first cluster of 255 grounds on May 4, followed by 509 additional sites on August 24. With Wednesday's addition of 1,000 sites—including 93 across Fatehgarh Sahib district alone—the state has completed over 56 percent of the master layout.

The numbers tell the operational scale:

Phase	Date Cleared	Grounds Added	Cumulative Total	Target Milestone
Phase 1	May 4	255	255	Initial rollout
Phase 2	August 24	509	764	Regional expansion
Phase 3	Current	1,000	1,764

Ground Specifications and Multi-Sport Infrastructure

Punjab’s rural works department built these grounds under standard engineering templates rather than clearing vacant dirt patches. Each complex features a six-foot-high chain-link perimeter fence, boundary plantations to enhance village tree cover, and six-foot-wide paved walking tracks rigged with footlights for morning and evening use. To ensure maintenance during dry months, teams installed dedicated submersible pumps and pipe hydrants for continuous turf irrigation.

Separate toilet blocks for men and women stand beside locked storerooms meant to protect collective sporting gear. For younger children, the grounds include fenced play parks outfitted with swings, ladder bars, and slides. High-mast luminaires illuminate the main pitches after sundown.

Yet the scope reaches beyond casual recreation. Selected grounds house full-scale, six-lane 400-metre running tracks to identify and train track-and-field sprinters, alongside standard pitches for volleyball, football, and hockey. The administration provides the sporting kits directly to panchayats, removing the purchase barrier for impoverished households.

Why It Matters

Rural Punjab has battled systemic opioid abuse and synthetic substance networks for over a decade. By planting physical athletic infrastructure directly into village panchayats, the state government is attempting an environmental intervention—creating institutional spaces where physical discipline and competition displace street-corner drug distribution networks.

Final construction schedules are now running across the remaining 1,336 designated sites to hit the full 3,100-ground target before the next fiscal cycle closes.