Bhubaneswar: Odisha Legislative Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution unanimously to extend congratulations to the Indian Women’s and Men’s Hockey teams for their historical performance at the Tokyo Olympics-2020.
Sports and Youth Services Minister Tusharkanti Behera moved the resolution and said, “The Indian Men’s team won the Bronze medal. The team has shown great resilience, skills and fitness. After 41 years, the team won the medal defeating the leading hockey playing nations in the world.”
The Indian women’s team performance was beyond all expectations and showed great fighting spirit. Even though they couldn’t win a medal, they won the heart of the nation, Mr.Behera said.
Stating hockey has a special place in India, the Minister said the game brought together the whole country and made Indians across the world feel proud of the achievement at Tokyo.
“On behalf of the House, I extend my greetings and congratulations to the Indian Women and Men’s Hockey Teams for their historic successes at the Tokyo Olympics and wish them more glories and laurels in the coming days,” he said.
It’s a matter of pride for all of us that Odisha has been recognized as the force behind the success of the Indian teams. Never before in the history of the State, Odisha was praised so much across the country, he pointed out.
It’s the result of the vision of the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to support the revival of Hockey in India. The strategic decision of the Chief Minister to partner with Hockey India and sponsor the Indian Teams and organize all major tournaments in Odisha including the Hockey World Cup 2018, led to this great success for the country, he further said.
Mr.Behera said the Chief Minister has earned the love of Indians for his statesmanship approach which brought back the glory of Indian Hockey. Odisha will continue to support the development of Hockey in India.
“We are organizing the Men’s Hockey World Cup in January 2023 and India’s largest Hockey Stadium is being built in Rourkela for the mega event. We are investing in grass root-level Hockey Training centres. A High Performance centre has been established in Kalinga Stadium. Many boys and girls from Odisha will represent the country in the coming years,” he pointed out.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has taken another historic step by announcing the support to Indian Hockey for 10 more years. Odisha will be the home of Indian Hockey and will continue to support the game towards making India the World Champion.
He requested all the members to join me in applauding the Indian Women and Men’s teams for their spectacular performance at Tokyo Olympics and wished them for their future endeavors. The resolution was passed unanimously in the House.