Khelo India loses steam in Kathua

Sanjay Pathak

Kathua, December 8

The Centre’s much-ambitious Khelo India programme appears to have lost steam in the hilly district of Kathua where the young and budding players don’t have proper guidance to explore their sporting talent.

The main reason for the sorry state of affairs is the virtual non-availability of coaches in different games. Shockingly, the entire district, having a population of about 6.30 lakh, has only one coach, that too, in judo, to identify the talent and train budding players.

This is notwithstanding the fact that the administration has been contemplating to establish an international-level stadium in the Hiranagar area in the memory of former Union minister Arun Jaitley, who had got married to the daughter of J&K’s one of the tallest leaders Girdhari Lal Dogra, who remained the Finance Minister for 27 years in the erstwhile J&K state and belonged to Bhaiya village in Hiranagar subdivision.

District officials disclosed that the work on an indoor stadium in the Billawar area of the district was all set to be completed soon, while the land for establishing a stadium in Basohli had already been identified. “The existing infrastructure holds meaning if the hidden and real talent of budding players is not explored effectively,” the officials said.

The Central government had launched the Khelo India programme with much hype to revive the sports culture at the grass-roots level by building a strong framework for all sports played in the country. The move was aimed at encouraging mass participation as well as promoting excellence in sports. One of the 12 major objectives, the Khelo India programme is aimed at identifying talented players in priority sports disciplines at different levels. “There is an acute shortage of coaches, not only in Kathua district but across Jammu and Kashmir. New coaches have not been recruited for the last so many years. That’s why Kathua district has been facing shortage of coaches,” Iqbal Singh, Manager, Sports Stadium, Kathua, said.