Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 1: J&K Gymnastics Association president Kiran Wattal today slapped a Rs 5 cr defamation notice on one Girdhari Lal Raina alias Ajay Bharti, stating that he had defamed him by making false & derogatory statements against him in a press conference.
Raina, son of Jagar Nath Raina of Govind Nagar, Talab Tillo, had made defamatory & objectionable allegations against Wattal in a press conference. A news report in this regard had appeared in a local newspaper on February 11, 2025.
For trying to lower his image, respect and reputation, Wattal has sought Rs 5 cr as damages.
For his immense contribution in the field of sports, and leading Indian contingent as head of delegation at the international level more than three times and representing J&K in three national games as HoD/Observer, Wattal - a national medalist - was nominated as Chef De Mission by the J&K Sports Council vide January 27, 2025 order No SC/846-VIII/10278-84 to facilitate the contingent and make sure that they don't face any problems during the competition.
Besides J&K Sports Council, the Gymnastic Federation of India too had tasked him to represent the federation on its behalf.
It may be mentioned that sports activities in J&K have reached new heights only because of the support of LG Manoj Sinha and the central government. It is a matter of great pride that in the last four years, the J&K Gymnastic Association has held three national events and other national/international training camps which is a record in itself. J&K gymnasts got seven medals in the recently held national games at Uttarakhand by improving on their previous tally of two medals.
It is not out of question to mention here that, under the patronage of LG Sinha, liberal central funding and the sincere efforts of J&K Sports Council, the UT won a record 237 gold, 147 silver and 212 bronze medals at national level, and three gold, two silver and 10 bronze medals at the international level in 2024-25.
There has also been excellent organisation of Khelo India Winter Games at Gulmarg, making it virtually the capital of winter games in India. During the conduct of first Khelo India Winter Games at Gulmarg from March 7 to 11, 2020, 1,123 athletes from across the country had participated. J&K had topped the medal tally.
During the second winter games held from February 26 to March 2, 2021 in which 1,375 athletes from 27 states/UTs participated, J&K had again come out shiningly, winning 18 gold, five silver and 34 bronze medals. Since then, it has been the same story of success for the J&K athletes.
There has also been immense youth engagement. From 1.5 lakh youth engagement in 2020-21, the engagement of youth in sports in 2023-24 was 36 lakh. The figures speak for themselves and highlight the commitment of LG's administration towards the promotion of sports activities in J&K.
Regretfully, just not giving any weightage to all these starry achievements of the J&K government and the sports bodies, Girdhari Lal, in his press conference, made an attempt to belittle all this good work by making false allegations just to draw political mileage out of it by dragging the names of the chief minister and the sports minister. He also made an attempt to create a regional divide in J&K.
|
