Cricket, Chess, Football Academies, Rs 200 cr PMDP projects, other infrastructure coming up in state

Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir has greatly improved its medal tally over the years with the state bagging 506 medals in national and 26 in international level events this fiscal till January 31, 2019.
The state sent over 2100 players to participate at national level events who took part in 43 disciplines and bagged 506 medals, while 40 sportspersons of the state participated in international events of 27 disciplines and won 26 medals.
The information was given to Principal Secretary, Finance, Navin Choudhary as he chaired a meeting of J&K Sports Council to take review of the sports scenario in the state.
The meeting was attended by Secretary Youth Services and Sports and Information, Sarmad Hafiz , Secretary State Sports Council Dr Naseem Javaid Chowdhary and other senior officers of the Sports Council and finance department.
The Principal Secretary Finance laid stress on grooming of potential players and holding back to back events to promote sports culture in the state in real sense of the term.
For honing skills of potential budding sportspersons, he asked the Council to rope in internationally renowned players including cricketers to guide the state youth trying their hand in different disciplines.
For taping winter tourism, he suggested formulating a comprehensive calendar for holding winter sports tournaments across the state.
He asked the Council to come up with a proposal to fund the training of potential players including cricketers and soccer players for training in reputed academies of the country.
He asked for exploring the possibility of holding inter-district sports contests on regular basis to evolve a vibrant sports environment in the state. He also suggested for holding night football matches to attract the locals soccer lovers by utilizing Football stadiums already equipped with the lighting facility.
Earlier, Secretary Sports Council, through power point presentation gave a detailed account of sports activities, international/ national participation of state players, medal tally, upcoming infrastructure and utilization of social media platform by the Council to connect with the sportspersons across the state.
He gave details about the status of upcoming sports infrastructure including 31 projects under PMDP costing Rs 200 cr. The projects include around 21 multipurpose indoor halls, up-gradation of stadiums including MA Stadium Jammu and Bakshi Stadium in Kashmir.
The meeting was informed that the Council is in process of establishing Chess, Cricket and Football Academies, while it has planned to host series of national and international sports events in the state.