Excelsior Sports Correspondent
SAMBA, Sept 28: Block level competitions, under Khelo India initiative, for Purmandal and Bari-Brahmana blocks were declared open today by Deputy Commissioner Sushma Chauhan here at Sports Stadium, Smailpur.
Starting with the Purmandal and Bari Barihmana block, Sports competitions will be held across District. The sports event was preceded by a far reaching registration drive carried out by the district administration with the active involvement of public representatives, sports associations, Army, Police, Central Armed Paramilitary forces.
An unprecedented 6500 sports enthusiast in the age groups of under 17, under 20 and above 20 have registered for Volleyball, Kho-Kho, Badminton, Kabadi, Athletic, Wrestling, Football, swimming, hockey and unified games in the district. To enable school and college pass-outs to display their sports talent, age group of above 20 has specially been introduced for Khelo-India events in the district.
After the completion of the Block level games, the winning teams from each block would participate in district level competitions followed by a grand closing ceremony at Sports Stadium, Samba.
After unfurling the khelo India flag and lighting the games torch, the DDC said that the ‘Khelo India’ is a sports initiative of Govt of India for motivating the youth to participate in large numbers in sports activities and channelize their energy towards the development of the nation. She informed that district Samba will be celebrating the spirit of sportsmanship during next one month as part of the khelo India initiative. She exhorted upon youth to shun the path of violence, discord, despair and take up sports as part of their daily activity to remain fit, calm, disciplined and motivated in life.
She interacted with the sports persons, participants and also witnessed the inaugural matches in kabbadi, KHO-KHO, VolleyBall and Badminton.
The inaugural ceremony was also attended by Dr. Koushal Kumar SSP Samba, Pankaj Magotra ADDC, Aijaz Qaiser ACD, Sunil Sharma DYSSO. The other officers of District Administration, Army, Police, CRPF, acclaimed sports persons and locals were also present in large number on the occasion.