Ludhiana: An budget increase designed to raise the daily diet allowance of Punjab Institute of Sports (PIS) athletes from ₹250 to ₹450 has been delayed due to ongoing administrative procedures. Despite being officially notified in April, the Ludhiana sports department has missed the initial rollout, leaving roughly 160 to 170 local athletes waiting on the promised nutritional upgrades.District sports officer (DSO) Kuldeep Chugh confirmed that the bottleneck stems entirely from official paperwork and stated: “The revised diet budget and changes in the diet plan of the athletes will be implemented in the month of July most likely, this will be helpful in providing more nutritional diet for the athletes under the PIS. The procedure might have delayed the implementation of this but it will be done as soon as possible.”Currently, the under-budgeted scheme funds three daily meals alongside simple snacks, supplying standard items like eggs, vegetables, almonds, milk, and salad. The core objective of nearly doubling the daily expenditure is to ditch this generic menu for specialised, game-specific nutrition profiles tailored entirely to an athlete’s physical discipline.Explaining the scientific necessity of the overhaul, a Ludhiana sports department coach stated: “Each game has its own nutritional requirements depending on the training level and other requirements of different nutritions like fibre, carbs, protein and fat intake. Now with the revised diet plans the athletes will have the required nutrition as per their sports disciplines.”Ground-level competitors at Guru Nanak Stadium are anxious for the financial transition to close. Welcoming the structural changes while lamenting the wait time, a local athlete stated: “It has been a long time since the athletes have received any upgrades in the diet, if the authorities have planned to make such changes for us that will be a positive effort. Hopefully this will be implemented as soon as possible.”
