berhampur ganjam district administration has chalked out a massive plan for development of at least 1000 playgrounds two in each of the 475 gram panchayats in the district in the next two years at least rs 50 crore has been earmarked from mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme mgnregs and integrated action plan iap for this purpose official sources said ganjam district was included in the centrallysponsored iap scheme this year for infrastructure development in the leftwing extremismaffected areas to counter maoist activities the programme will be given special emphasis in tribaldominated 110 gram panchayats in the district since the government has included construction of playgrounds from mgnregs funds in iap districts recently we have chalked out the massive programme for constriction of the playgrounds in ganjam said a senior officer of the district we think there will be no problem of space in villages to construct the playgrounds said collector krishan kumar said the playgrounds can help inculcate a culture of sports among rural youth and help them lead an agile and disciplined life he added ganjam district athletics association gdaa general secretary ashok sahu welcomed the proposal he said it would help talented rural youth to express their sporting prowess he also suggested the government to provide other infrastructure facilities like kits and coaches to train the youth and to declare berhampur stadium as a regional sports complex the village playgrounds with have all facilities like drainage vegetation to arrest erosion etc an officer said district sports officer a k patnaik said the government has also made allocations for the development of playgrounds under its panchayat yuva krida o khela abhiyan pykoka scheme the district has received around rs 150 crore for development of 146 playgrounds in rural areas in the last three years he said