Excelsior Sports Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 20: 16th J&K Police Martyrs’ Memorial Football Tournament-2018 got underway at Synthetic Turf TRC Ground here today.
The tournament is being organized by J&K Police annually under Civic Action Programme (CAP).
The opening ceremony was attended by SS Wazir, ADGP (Retd), AK Choudhary, ADGP Armed, Organizing Secretary of the Tournament, Ab Ghani Mir, ADGP CID J&K, SA Wattali, IGP Armed / IR Kashmir, SK Gupta, Director SSG J&K, S.P Pani, IGP Kashmir Zone, Hafiz Akhter, DIG (Retd.), Bashir Ahmad Dar, DIG (Retd.), Rashid Ahmad Dar, DIG (Rtd.) VK Birdi, DIG CKR Srinagar besides other senior retired and serving Police Officers, Civil Officers, Football Association / Sports Council members and huge number of spectators.
The speakers in their addresses said that the tournament is being conducted regularly from 1998 in memory of martyrs of J&K Police to pay tributes to them. They said that this tournament not only provides us an opportunity to remember hundreds of police personnel who have laid down their lives for the nation but also provides an opportunity to the players and budding talent of the valley to show their capability.
They disclosed that last year police spent approximately 3 Crore for various sports activities in the State, adding that an amount of 131 lakhs was spent for conducting sports festivals at district, range and zonal level during the last year. For promoting the rural sports and other activities, 40,000 each was distributed among the 193 Police Stations across the State.
The organised informed that in order to attract more and more talent to J&K Police a Sports Policy has been submitted to the government for consideration. They said that Ministry of Home Affairs has approved two Synthetic Turfs for North and Central Kashmir and hoped that the Synthetic Turf with flood lights will be approved for South Kashmir in near future. lakh.
Earlier, ADGP Armed J&K and Organizing Secretary of the Tournament in his welcome speech said that 34 teams across the J&K State are participating in the 16th edition of the tournament. Moreover, he also announced that winner team of the tournament will receive a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 100,000, while the runners-up team will get a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 75,000 and 2nd runners-up team will also be given a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 50,000 which will be increased in the next year.
The exhibition cum inaugural match played between J&K Police Veteran XI and J&K Football Association Veteran XI which was won by JKFA in penalty shootouts.
The dignitaries presented mementos to all the players of both the teams and winners and runners-up trophies to J&K Football Association Veteran XI and J&K Police Veteran XI respectively.
Follow our WhatsApp channel