M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Dec15: An interstate football tournament kicked off today in the police line ground. The event started with a grand gala opening but stands remained empty for a long time. Students of St. Mariam School presented the welcome dance on this occasion.
Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation Mithilesh Thakur inaugurated the week long tournament. The minister was flanked by DC Shashi Ranjan, SP Chandan Kr Sinha, additional SP K Vijay Shankar and host of the members of the organising committee.
Divisional Commissioner Jata Shankar Chowdhury also joined the ceremony.
On the occasion, one-minute silence was also observed in memory of martyrdom of late CDS General Bipin Rawat, his wife and other army officials.
The tournament has been organised by the Palamu police and Palamu Football Ayojan Samiti in memory of cops and officials who died fighting the extremists.
The inaugural match was between Young United Football Academy, Kolkata and SAIL Football Academy, Bokaro. Spectators enjoyed this match for free as there was no ticket booking counter open.
An official of the organising committee, Sheo Kumar Mishra, said that the match is free for the spectators today to generate interest in the game so they keep coming till the tournament gets over on December 21.
However, two sons of Palamu serving in the Indian Army who were found dead in mysterious circumstances; one in Maharashtra and the other in Jammu and Kashmir, were not included in the list of the 20 martyrs. All the martyrs were of the land mines explosions triggered by the CPI Maoists and the year that saw many cops die fighting was 2016.
The widows and the family members of the martyred families maintained their poise when they were felicitated but some widows broke down into sobbing.
President of the organising committee, SP Palamu Chandan Kumar Sinha, urged Minister Mithilesh Thakur to help promote sports in the Palamu division.
Sinha said the minister Thakur has excellent rapport with Chief Minister Hemant Soren and hence, he is capable of getting things done quite easily for Palamu.
The minister has also donated Rs.2 lakhs for this tournament, informed the SP.
Mithilesh Thakur while speaking at the event lauded CM Hemant Soren for arranging jobs for sportsmen in the state. He asked youths to chart out careers in sports as well. While addressing them, Thakur said his admission into St Columba College Hazaribag was on the sports quota and he has played in the Mionul Haque stadium in Patna.
Divisional Commissioner Jata Shankar Chowdhury urged the SP Palamu to promote sports and games in the interiors of the district to save youths from going astray.
