Sports an integral part of state’s culture: Abhimanyu

Sonepat, September 30

Sports and sportspersons were a part of the Haryana culture and they have proved it at various national and international events time and again. This was stated by Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu here on Sunday.

He was addressing a public meeting in Gohana after inaugurating Jai Balaji Sports Academy on the outskirts of the town. For the promotion of sports, the government had disbursed around Rs 80 crore among sportspersons in a day, he claimed.

Reminding that Haryana has always been a symbol of communal harmony, he said the evil of untouchability could not touch people of 36 castes in the state. He, however, cautioned them to remain vigilant against the elements dividing the society in the name of caste, religion or region.

On the occasion, he announced a grant of Rs 11 lakh from his discretionary fund for the academy.

Later, talking to the media, the Finance Minister said the Akhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti National president Yash Pal Malik was the biggest enemy of the Jat youths. The minister said Malik was trying to spoil the brotherhood of people of the state for personal gains.

Sources said around 300 volunteers of the Sangharsh Samiti were arrested as preventive detention from eight locations on roads leading to Gohana from Kharkhoda, Sonepat, Rohtak, Kathura, Baroda, Jind, Safidon and Panipat where they had been staging a dharna to oppose the entry of the Finance Minister in Gohana. However, they were released soon after the minister’s programme. — OC