Vying for top honours, artists mesmerise audience

UT Level Youth Festival in full swing

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Jan 4: In a bid to vie for the top honours and get the nod of the expert panel of the adjudicators, the young cultural artists drawn from various districts of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir displayed extraordinary skill and talent to mesmerise a huge gathering of audience on day-4 of the ongoing Inter-District UT Level Youth Festival, being organised by the Directorate of Youth Services and Sports at Zorawar Singh Auditorium, University of Jammu, here.
The judges observed the group performances of the participants keenly and have almost finalised the selected list of the artists, with one more day left for the final selection.
The judges while lavishing praise on the artists said that youth of Jammu and Kashmir are immensely talented and the need is to channelise their talent properly, adding that the events like this provide ample opportunity to the youth to showcase their skill.
The items which have already been finalised included folk dance, folk song and Thang-ta Martial Art etc.
“The selected probable will be part of the UT contingent which will proceed for the National Youth Festival to be held at Puducherry from January 12 to January 16,” said the organisers.
They said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also grace the Festival with his benign presence at Puducherry.
A total of 344 young artists, with 207 boys and 137 girls drawn from all 20 districts of the Union Territory are taking part in this cultural gala, besides 48 contingent in-charges.
During his visit at the venue today, Director Youth Services and Sports, Gazanfar Ali advised the Conveners of the concerned Committees to hold RT-PCR of all the selected artists on the morning of January 6 in order to adhere to the SOPs and other Government guidelines before departing to Puducherry amid ongoing COVID pandemic.
The J&K contingent will be flagged off for Puducherry by Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha on January 6, 2022. Prominent among others present on the occasion were Bashir Ahmed, Joint Director (K), Jatinder Mishra, Deputy Director (J) and DYSSOs from various districts.