Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Sham Lal Choudhary today declared open 1st CCDU T-20 Invitational Cricket Tournament here at University playground.Minister of State for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi was also present on the occasion.The 8-day tournament organised by Communication & Capacity Development Unit (CCDU) will be played on league basis in which four teams viz. Media-XI, Engineer-XI, Police-XI and Div Com-XI are participating. The final of the tournament will be played on November 29 at the same venue. The theme of the tournament is "Jal Hai To Kal Hai".Highlighting the objective of organizing the tournament, Sham Choudhary said that it is a promotional activity aimed at to create awareness among the masses about the need and importance of conservation and preservation of water resources and its judicious use. He said that tournaments, Workshops and Melas are being organized at district and Constituency levels to sensitize the masses about importance of conservation of water resources and judicious use of water.
Calling for concerted efforts for preservation and saving of water, the Minister said that the mandate of the department is to provide potable water to the people of the state and it is possible when everyone will work in this regard. He asked the concerned for organizing more such tournaments as youth can act as ambassadors for spread the message effectively.
Later, Sham Choudhary unveiled the winner and runner-up trophies.Speaking on the occasion, Syed Andrabi called upon the PHE and allied departments to involve more and more youth in conservation and preservation of water, saying that they can play a key role in this regard.Earlier, the Ministers were introduced with the players.The inaugural match was played between Engineer-XI and Media- XI.The Engineer-XI won the match by 23 runs and Zeeshan Akram was declared as man of the match who scored 57 runs. Also present were Secretary PHE, irrigation and Flood Control, who is also Chairman Water & Sanitation Support Organization, M Raju, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Jammu Dr Arun Manhas, Chief Engineers PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Jammu, besides a large number of sports lovers.