*Director Youth Services post lying vacant since March 2013
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 12: Although the Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of Jammu and Kashmir are fighting for the stadiums in their respective constituencies or district headquarters, there is absolutely no focus on having comprehensive Sports Policy, which otherwise is imperative to spell out the measures required to be taken to create a culture of sports and promote it in the State. The intensity of non-seriousness can be gauged from the fact that draft of the policy is gathering dust in the official files during the past several months but the concerned officers are unaware of the same.
Several Members of Legislative Assembly during the ongoing Budget Session agitated over sanctioning of stadiums for their respective areas but nobody even whispered a word about the preparation of a comprehensive Sports Policy without which the creation of stadiums would not yield any positive result.
Sources told EXCELSIOR that in the month of February this year, the Department of Youth Services and Sports formulated draft of State Sports Policy in consultation with J&K State Sports Council, Department of Physical Education, University of Jammu, Shri Mata Vaishnodevi University, eminent sports persons of the State and other stakeholders.
It was officially stated at that time that Sports Policy on being approved would help in nurturing the sports talent among the youth of the State and to prepare them in all the sports disciplines for the national and international level competitions and providing sports infrastructure up to Gram Panchayat levels etc.
The draft of the policy was hosted on the website of Youth Services and Sports Department for seeking suggestions from public, sports persons and other stakeholders for improvement and enrichment of the draft within 10 days so that Sports Policy is finalized.
However, despite lapse of several months no step has been initiated at any level in the Department of Youth Services and Sports to finalize the policy and the draft is still gathering dust in the official files, sources informed, adding due to non-finalization of the policy the much talked about objectives mentioned in the draft could not be achieved till date.
The objectives, as per the draft of the policy, were to create a culture of sports, providing opportunities to all the citizens to participate in different sports activities, develop and optimally utilize high quality sports infrastructure, encourage, train and support sportspersons to participate in national and international championships, lay special emphasis on strengthening of infrastructure and facilities in the State and to channelize talents in sports etc.
Despite repeated calls to ascertain the reasons behind delay in finalization of policy, the Commissioner/ Secretary, Youth Services and Sports Department, Hilal Ahmed Parrey initially didn’t respond and thereafter switched off the phone.
When contacted after repeated attempts, Director General Youth Services and Sports, Jehangir Mir even expressed ignorance about preparation of draft of the policy. “We are still in the process of preparing the draft”, he said.
When informed that draft of the policy is available on the website of the department, he changed stance and said, “it might be passing through the stage of objections and suggestions. The policy will be placed before the Minister for Youth Services and Sports for finalization soon after completion of objections and suggestions process”.
His statement is notwithstanding the fact that time-frame fixed for obtaining suggestions and objections was over in the month of March this year. Similarly, another officer of the department fanned ignorance about the draft policy.
According to the sources, the post of Director Youth Services and Sports is lying vacant during the past three years as no seriousness has so far been shown to fill up this important post.
Ever since the State High Court had directed for filling up of post of Director by strictly adhering to the Recruitment Rules in the month of March 2013, the Government has stopped making appointment of Director and is rather posting Director General of Youth Services and Sports after regular intervals by making some interim arrangements.
The elected representatives of the people should realize that a comprehensive Sports Policy is imperative for creation of sports infrastructure at different level, talent search and training, establishment of sports and wellness centres in Capital cities and ensuring better functioning of sports associations and they should press for immediate finalization of policy.
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