J&K has potential, needs a sports policy: Everester Ranveer

JAMMU: Conquering the world’s highest peak thrice, the Everester Lt. Col. Ranveer Jamwal today said that Jammu & Kashmir has a lot of talent and there is a need to frame a sports policy so that the sportspersons can get their due share and they compete not only with their counterparts in other states but other countries also.
Talking to the Editorial Staff of The News Now during the weekly Roundtable Series of The News Now, Lt. Col. Jamwal, who was the guest for the ninth edition, said, “There is lot of talent in our State. We are having brilliant players of Football in Kashmir. You can see Nadeem and Mehrajuddin, the young footballers from the Valley, 8-year-old Tajamul Islam, the Kickboxing Champion and Olympian Chain Singh and many others. But we only need a State Sports Policy to help all these players and also to groom the new talent.”
“I have talked about sports policy during my meetings with the Chief Minister and many others,” he said, adding, “If framed soon, it will help the coming generations.”
Lt. Col. Jamwal, who conquered over 20 peaks in India and other countries like Argentina, Tanzania and Switzerland, said, “I have gone to many schools and motivated the students to join sports. It will help us in two way process. One is to make the generation physically and mentally fit, and second, they would choose their aim as a sportsmen in future.”
Referring to famous women wrestlers, Geeta and Babita Phogat, who are in limelight nowadays due to the Bollywood super-hit movie “Dangal”, featured on their real life story, said, “Girls are mentally more strong than the boys and this is also my experience during my mountaineering days, when two Ireland girls, who were not professional mountaineers but simple bank officials, conquered Tanzania’s Banjaro peak along with me.” “I got motivated with it and when I came back, I met Deputy Commissioner Samba, who is again a woman and told her to help me to motivate girl students for sports. I trained many girls for running and sports activities in my Samba district. It is also part of our Centre Government’s initiative Beti Bachao, Beti Padao scheme,” added Lt. Col. Jamwal.
Everester Jamwal, however, was not interested to open any mountaineering practice academy or school saying that he will only help students to learn how to move ahead with mountaineering.