The honorable Supreme Court judgment dated 03.03.2023 civil appeal nos. 2984-2985 of 2022 between The State of Haryana and others versus Satpal & others clearly implies all schools must have a playground for their exclusive use provided land was originally acquired for the sole purpose of school playground. Encroachment and commercialization of these football grounds shall not be tolerated.
In the State of Goa many football grounds were originally developed for the exclusive benefit of the village schools and/or villagers. Off late, infrastructure of some of these football grounds has been upgraded to FIFA standards to meet certain hosting rights criteria. Instead of handing over these football grounds back to schools, the directorate of sports and youth affairs / sports authority of Goa is not willing for reasons best known to them. As per the latest Supreme Court judgment, the village schools shall have the first right to use these developed football playgrounds without any prior conditions and cost to schools.
Football is a dying sport in Goa due to unavailability of these football grounds to village schools and/or villagers. Mushrooming of futsal grounds all over Goa are due to lack of free football playgrounds in Goa. Youth of Goa are been deprived of their fundamental right to play on football grounds developed for their purpose. They are forced to spend money for playing futsal which should not happen in the first place. If the government is serious in developing football, then the Supreme Court judgment as cited in the first paragraph should be an eye opener to all the sports administrators and authorities of Goa.
In the meantime the schools in the State of Goa should take note of the latest Supreme Court judgment in order to pursue their rights to logical conclusion.
