[as introduced in the rajya sabhaon the 11th july, 2014] bill no xxix of 2013 the distressed veteran sports persons (welfare) bill, 2013 a billto provide for the welfare measures for the distressed veteran sportspersons such as oldage pension for subsistence, disability assistance, healthcare facilities, housingfacilities etc, to be undertaken by the state and for the establishment ofdistressed veteran sportspersons welfare fund and for mattersconnected therewith and incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-fourth year of the republic of india as follows:— 1 (1) this act may be called the distressed veteran sportspersons (welfare) act,2013short title, extent, application and commencement(2) it extends to whole of india and applies to sportspersons who are citizens of india and are for the time being, in distress5(3) it shall come into force with immediate effect 2  in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—definitions(a) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state, the government of that state and in other cases the central government;(b) "fund" means the distressed veteran sportspersons welfare fund established under section 3;(c) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act; and5(d) "veteran sportsperson" includes all sportspersons who have represented a state in national games or represented india in olympic games or commonwealth games or asian games or in any international sports event10establishment of the distressed sportspersons welfare fund3 (1) the central government shall, as soon as may be, but within six months of the commencement of this act, by notification in the official gazette, establish the distressed sportspersons welfare fund for the purposes of this act with initial corpus of rupees ten thousand crore to be provided by the central government by due appropriation made by law by parliament in this behalf and thereafter the central government and governments of the states and union territories shall contribute to the fund to such extent and in such manner as may be prescribed15(2) the fund may also receive moneys from body corporates, financial institutions and sportsbodies, both domestic and international ones, individuals and bodies in the form of contributions and donations(3) the fund shall be administered by a board consisting of,—(i) the union minister of sports, as the (ex-officio) chairperson;20(ii) five members to represent each of the sports bodies called associations, federations or by whatever name called, recognized by the international olympic committee (ioc) or as may be recognized by the central government, by notification in the official gazette, who shall be rotated in alphabetical order after every three years in such manner as may be prescribed;25(iii) three members to represent the states to be nominated by the central government on the recommendation of the states who shall be rotated in alphabetical order after every three years, in such manner as may be prescribed;(iv) two members to represent the veteran sportspersons to be nominated by the central government in such manner as may be prescribed30 35(4) any veteran sportsperson who is in distress and who intends to avail old age pension for his subsistence or for disability assistance under this act shall apply to the board constituted under sub-section (3) of section 3 in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed and the board shall, after holding such inquiry, as it may deem fit and necessary either accept or reject the application and in case the application is accepted, shall sanction the quantum of old age pension per month and the disability assistance in one lump sum, as the case may be, to the applicant:provided that the monthly old age pension shall not be less than rupees ten thousand and the disability assistance shall not be less than rupees five lakhutilization of the fund4 the fund shall be utilized, in addition to the purposes referred to in sub-section (4)of section 3 of this act, for the following purposes, namely:—40(a) payment of premium of life insurance of veteran sportsperson; (b)  free healthcare facilities including medicines pathological tests, x-rays andvarious scans, treatment as outdoor  and indoor patients for the distressed veteran sportspersons and their family members; and(c) for such other purposes and welfare measures, as may be prescribed455 it shall be the duty of the appropriate government to set up a special cell for the purposes of monitoring the implementation of the provisions of this act within its territorial jurisdictionappropriate government to set up special cell6 the central government shall, after  due appropriation made by parliament by law in this behalf, provide adequate funds for carrying out the purposes of this actcentral government to provide funds7 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other law for the time being in force regulating any of the matters dealt with in this actact to supplement other lawspower to make rules58 the   central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules forcarrying out the purposes of this act statement  of  objects  and  reasonsour nation has produced world renowned sportspersons and of late, our nation has improved its medal tally at the olympics, asian games, commonwealth games and other international events which proves that games and sports are gaining popularity in our country, there are sports like cricket, lawns tennis or to some extent badminton in which sportspersons are earning good money which may be enough to lead a normal life but there are games where there is no money for the sportspersons very often incidents are reported by the media that veteran sportsperson is pulling bicycle rickshaw, or working as a labourer or as a waiter and so on so forth with the passage of time, many veteran, sportspersons become distresed either due to old age, disability, infirmity, due to chronic diseases, etc, they do not have money even for their subsistence, let alone spending money on their medical treatment and other necessities of life circumstances compel them to lead isolated life it is felt that welfare fund shared be established for such sportspersons so that they may be provided old age pension, disability allowance, medical treatment or financial assistance for self employment the bill proposes to achieve this objectivehence, this billdr  akhilesh  das  gupta financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for the establishment of the distressed sportspersons welfare fund with initial corpus of rupees ten thousand crore to be provided by the central government and thereafter contribute to the fund clause 6 of the bill makes it obligatory for the central government to provide adequate funds for carrying out the purposes of the bill the bill, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is not possible to quantify the actual amount which may be involved at this stage but it is estimated that a sum of rupee one thousand crore may involve as recurring expenditure per annumno non-recurring expenditure is likely to be involved memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 8 of the bill empowers  the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of this bill the rules will related to matters of details onlythe delegation of legislative power is of normal character—————— a billto provide for the welfare measures for the distressed veteran sportspersons suchas old age pension for subsistence, disability assistance, healthcare facilities,housing facilities etc, to be undertaken by the state and for the establishmentof distressed veteran sportspersons welfare fund and for mattersconnected therewith and incidental thereto————(dr akhilesh das gupta, mp)gmgipmrnd—1075rs(s4)—11-07-2014