“ Khelo India ” an initiative to promote sports and physical activity among rural youths by the Union government and supported by J&K Sports Council ended here at the local Param Veer Chakra Sardar Bana Singh Stadium, R.S Pura in which M.L.A from R.S Pura Constituency Dr.Gagan Bhagat who inaugurated the Khelo India was specially present to witness the final matches played .While speaking on the occasion and addressing the youths from the villages around R.S Pura and particularly from the border areas said that sports and games are promoted in the urban areas , as per the policy of the previous govt., but the Prime Minister Narendera Modi has been concentrating on the rural areas of the country to uplift the villagers and especially the rural youths, and in this regard the Khelo India is all about. Approximately 1000 participants from more than 25 states and union territories are taking part in the competitions. Dr. Gagan Bhagat further said that Khelo India competitions are being conducted not only to promote sports at grass-root level but also to help create sports infrastructure in the country. He said it will provide a platform to the budding talents to compete at national level. Talent identification would also be done in the process for grooming them to achieve excellence at international level. He said a national portal for Sports Talent Search will be launched this month by the Sports Ministry, Govt. of India which will focus towards broad-basing of sports. We are committed to provide the best facilities to our budding young talents across disciplines.” Dr. Gagan also stated that wrestling has a rich history in India, especially in the R.S Pura border villages and the govt. is working with a special focus on it. The Khelo India competition had conducted wrestling competitions under different categories . He urged the youths to take up one sport and excel in that. Dr. Gagan Bhagat had recently pushed for sports as a compulsory subject in schools as part of the curriculum in the recently concluded budget session of the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly at Jammu. To encourage sportsperson and egg them on to the participate, the prize money for this year’s Khelo India competition has been increased. “The idea is to prepare well for future games and equip the budding talents with the best facilities and help them in honing their skills,” a release said. Dr.Gagan stated that given the amount of talent, a mass movement is needed to make India a super power in sports, he maintained that parents must encourage their children to play games and it is equally important as studies.Prominent among those who accompanied M.L.A R.S Pura included S.D.M R.S Pura, S.D.P.O R.S Pura Surinder Kumar, E.O R.S Pura Jodhraj, S.H.O R.S Pura Bhushan Manhas,Manager PVC Bana Singh Stadium Baljinder Singh, Sports Coaches from J&K Sports Council, B.J.P Mandal Pradhan R.S Pura Natharam, City President Inder Sharma, Hazoori Singh, Ranjeet Singh, Manmohan Choudhary, Gurdeep Saini,Tarsem Kumar, Rajesh Kumar, Abhishek Gupta, along with local youths from and around R.S Pura.
