Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today said that sports play a vital role in grooming the youth and encourage them for doing productive things, thereby, leading to betterment of the society.The Minister further said the government is serious to provide better sports infrastructure to the youth so that they come forward and utilize it for productive purposes, besides reiterating government’s commitment to encourage local sports of the rural and urban areas of the State.The Minister was addressing the sportspersons during State Powerlifting Championship (M&W) being organized by J&K Sports Powerlifting Association at RKM Gym, Upper Gummat, Jammu.“The games help in keeping youth away from unproductive things and unlawful activities,” the Minister said, adding that, they also help the sportspersons in maintaining physical fitness.Appealing youth to take part in games and sports activities, Zulfkar said that some youth are indulging in consuming drugs which damages their body and brain. Games can keep them away from drugs and society must encourage sports activities, he stressed.
The Minister congratulated all those who participated in Powerlifting championship and lauded the role of J&K Powerling Association for organizing the event. More than 150 sportspersons took part in the championship.The Minister declared Rakesh Kumar as Powerman while as Rabia Khanam was crowned as Powerwoman of J&K State.Those who won Gold medals in the championship included Harshul, Rakesh Kumar, Pawan Kumar, Kewal Krishan, Ansh Arora, Nageshwar Singh, Ankush, Rajesh, Ashraf, Waqar Ahmed Mir, Aaqib Hussain, Minkle Singh, Nishant, Arjun Saini, Deepak, Mohinder Pal, Chanakya, Akshay Gupta, Roshan, Jagbir Singh, Vickramjeet Singh, Irvinder Kour, Anjana Devi and Sapna Jain.Those who clinched Silver medals included Shubham, Vani Sharma, Aditya Sharma, Vishal Manhas, Samarjeet Raja Ram, Rafiq, Parvinder Singh, Abhimanyu Chopra, Diggi Sharma, Gagandeep Singh and Sunita Devi.In the championship, the Bronze medalists included Sumit Kumar, Achintya Sharma, Deeraj Verma, Shivam Gupta, Vishu Dutta, Vijay Choudhary and Shubam Sharma.Meanwhile, in Federation-Cup championship, Aditya Mahajan, Anjana Devi(F), Shubham Aryan, Vishal Manhas, Nageshwar, Aaqib Hussain, Jaspreet Singh, Jagbir Singh and Vickramjeet Singh won Gold medals while as Nikhil Gupta, Puneet Bandral, Tarun Dev Singh, Shivam Gupta and Vijay Choudhary won Silver medals and Bronze medalist were clinched by Sumeet Kumar and Harsh Dev Singh.