Sports Council fails to provide adequate facilities, training
JAMMU, June 15: Nirbay Bharat Foundation (NBF) today slammed the J&K Sports Council (JKSC) for its failure to provide adequate facilities and training to the sportspersons of the Union Territory for Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) 2021.
In a statement issued here, Tarun Uppal, Chairperson of the Foundation, highly praised the sportspersons of J&K for bringing laurels to the Union Territory (UT) by winning three Gold, five Silver and six Bronze medals in the recently held KIYG at Panchkula in Haryana despite lack of facilities and training sessions from JKSC.
Tarun Uppal said that on one hand the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi making hectic efforts in promoting sports culture across the country by providing enormous funding but on the other hand the authorities of JKSC have miserably failed to provide any adequate facilities to the budding players.
Uppal said as per Sports Authorities of India (SAI) guidelines, all the sportspersons were supposed to be sent to venue of the event in the Air Conditioned coaches but the JKSC has failed to manage the adequate facilities despite the adequate funds were provided by the Government of India.
He mentioned that the Sports Ministry has made a total budget of Rs 19.5 crore for KIYG 2021 despite this the sports players of J&K had travelled to Panchkula by non-AC buses amidst scorching heat.
Criticizing the authorities of JKSC, Uppal asserted that in the history of J&K, the Sports Council has not arranged any type of coaching as well as training camp for the selected players of KIYG 2021. He mentioned that the Sports Council is suppose to organise 21-day training camp for players before sending them in any recognized national event but this time nothing was done in this regard.
He complemented the players that despite non-available of any major support from the Sports Council, these budding players have won 14 medals and brought laurels to J&K.
Besides this, Uppal mentioned that in 2019, the former Union Sports Minister, Kiren Rijiju had announced water sports academy for Kashmir and fencing academy for Jammu. In Kashmir, the Academy of Water Sports was started in the very next year i.e, 2020, but till date the Fencing Academy has not opened at in Jammu. “Why J&K Sports Council is showing partiality in establishing the Fencing Centre at Maulana Azad Stadium Jammu,” he said, asking the Sports Council authorities then on what pretext the Fencing equipments have bought by the Sports Council worth Rs two crore. Due to non-utilization and non-starting of the fencing academy, the future of budding players of Jammu are on stake, he added.
Uppal also raised question over Bhagwati Nagar Indoor Stadium which has given to para military forces for accommodation purposes. He demanded that the Indoor Stadium should be vacated and the same would be used for sports events as already the Union Territory are facing dearth of sports infrastructure.