New Delhi: Almost half of the Rs 400 crore allocated to the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs is utilised in paying salaries, leaving very little to develop world-class sportspersons, Union Minister Sunil Dutt revealed today (Nov 24, 2004).

"My Ministry is among the poorest ... we get only Rs 400 crore grant. Of this Rs 200 crore goes in salaries," Dutt said at a function in New Delhi to commemorate completion of 125 years of the Indian circus.

"When you have just Rs 200 crore to spend on both sports and youth development, how can you expect us to produce Olympic gold medallists," he lamented.

The Minister also gave his thumbs up to China's effort to overtake the US as the top medal-winning country in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"I can guarantee that China will win more gold, more silver and more bronze medals than the US. They have put in $1.6 billion to prepare their sportspersons for this effort," Dutt said.

"When you put in both money and toil, nothing can stop you," he added.