Minister for Forest, Environment and Ecology, Choudhary Lal Singh on Friday said the Government is aiming to create state-of-the-art infrastructure across the State for promoting various sports activities.Speaking on the concluding day of the 13th J&K State Wushu championship at MA Indoor Stadium here, the Minister said it was high time that the youth energy is channelized towards sports activities. He said the State has undergone many ups and downs, which also affected the youth and their career. “Sports can really take you out from your depressed state of mind. You need to be focused and fix your targets too,” Mr Singh told the youth.Mr Singh, who was the Chief Guest on the occasion, said the youth should come forward and harness their talent in various sports activities. “This will help us to growing in sports arena too,” he said.The minister also distributed the medals to the winners in the Sub-Junior Weight categories boys and Girls. The Jammu District remained overall Champion where as Samba and Srinagar district shared 2nd and third place in the championship. The Technical Committee of the Wushu association declared Bhaikhtan (SGR) the best player of the tournament in Girls category whereas Sahil Bhaun (Jammu) in the boys was declared best player.Pertinently Junior Boys and Girls and Senior Men and Women category players played for the Yellow Petal.
The Minister also congratulated winners of the Wushu championship who made nation proud by winning the medals at the international arena including Bhanu Partap Singh, Rajinder Singh and Kuldeep Handoo, Chief Coach of India. He lauded Kuldeep Handoo and wished him best of luck for the forthcoming Asian Games at Jakarta. He asked the Wushists to make Bhanu, Kuldeep and Rajinder as their role models and assured full support from the Government for the better results at the international and national level.Earlier, Ranjeet Kalra, Vice President of the association presented the welcome address and apprised the Minister of the achievements of Wushu for the current year and appealed him to encourage the Internationally acclaimed persons in this combat sports in order to boost the morale of the Wushists.Kuldeep Handoo, General Secretary of the Wushu Association of J&K presented vote of thanks. Deepak Handa VP, Sunil Sharma VP were the Special guests on the occasion.In his speech, Handoo said that 800 participants from 17 Districts participated in the 4 day State Wushu championship.The other dignitaries present during the function were, Jt Secretary Sporst Council Jammu Shiv Kumar Sharma, Chief Sports Officer Haji Abdul Qayoom, Manager Indoor Satish, Riyaz Ahmed, Ajay Paul Gill , Daljeet Singh, Faisal Ali, Muhammad Maqsood, Ajaz Hassan, Nissar, Aijaz, Arun Singh, Lalit Singh ,Ruchi , Ashi, Sheetal, Kalyani (SAI Coach) and Atul Sharma.