Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Aug, 01
JKPCC Working President Raman Bhalla along with other prominent members of the area today met and felicitated Manpreet Singh Samrat who brought laurels for India especially J&K by winning Gold medal in World Strength Lifting Championship held in Kazakhstan. Prominent among those who accompanied Bhalla included Rajinder Singh Nathu Chairman Minority Department Congress, Ex. BDC Chairman and Congress Kissan Cell Vice President Dalip Kumar. Bhalla praised the Gold medalist Manpreet Singh for his achievement on winning the medal at an international event.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla said youth of Jammu and Kashmir are very enthusiastic and have always proved their talent in every discipline. The sports infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir is meager with few stadiums and training centers with disappointing maintenance. The way other states sports employees show dedication towards maintenance of sports grounds is above par and back home, it is in shambles.There is no dearth of talent in Jammu and Kashmir. But unfortunately from last ten years ,Govt has failed to understand the concern of taking the youth sports engagement programme in continuity without break to sustain the effort for bringing a paradigm intellectual shift in the targeted derailed youth generation.
I have seen how other states maintain their stadiums, training centres and the save area where sports are being practiced and played. But here in J&K, no one is bothered to maintain the already devastated playgrounds and the training centres.
Training centers are in shambles and due to the non- maintenance, these training centers have badly failed to motivate youngsters towards games and sports. There are lot of grounds and stadiums which are still under developed. If the government is doing funding, it is their responsibility to follow up the projects of infrastructure. They need to check whether the money they are funding for is spent on that project or is getting wasted by the non-callous approach of babus, said Bhalla .
Bhalla observed that, the government’s focus should go on rural areas where lack of infrastructure and will of trainers to train youngsters is negligible. Until and unless the issues of ground level and local youth icons are not answered, it will remain a distant dream of creating a culture of sports in the country especially in Jammu and Kashmir.
It is high time for the government to revisit these infrastructural projects and set a deadline for their completion. It is important that the government should also roll the positions of officers to lessen the chances of corruption. Otherwise, time is not far when Jammu and Kashmir won’t be able to produce quality sportspersons. Govt should work for better sports and infrastructural facilities in Jammu and Kashmir, added Bhalla.
