Not just the ‘Khelo India’ scheme, the District Sports Councils, which were constituted by the J&K Sports Council in 2015 to streamline sports activities at district levels, especially in hilly areas, have also failed to serve their purpose.
Pertinently, the decision of establishing District Sports Councils in all 22 districts was taken in a meeting held under the chairmanship of Minister for Youth Services and Sports Imran Raza Ansari wherein the District Development Commissioner concerned was nominated as its chairman. Sources said due to lack of initiatives on part of the government to make the newly created councils fully functional, the state youth hailing from far-flung districts continued to be deprived of participation in sports competitions at different levels. They said the motive of constituting the sports councils was to conduct activities in multidisciplines throughout the year with maximum participation of youth but that did not happen.
“Leave aside participation in the nationals, the youth are not able to participate in district and state-level competitions also. Most of the sports events are being held either in Jammu district or in other plain districts. There is very thin participation of players from far-flung districts due to lack of information,” an official said. The sources said different teams selected for national-level competitions across the country had very little percentage of players from rural and far-flung areas.
When contacted, Ravi Singh, Divisional Sports Officer, Sports Council, told The Tribune, “It is true that the District Sports Councils are yet to be made fully functional but we are hopeful that the matter will be sorted out soon. These are constituted exclusively for strengthening and promoting sports at the grass-roots level.”
