JAMMU, Mar 26: To fulfill the Government’s dream of making Jammu and Kashmir a sporting hub, the Department of Youth Services and Sports (DYSS) has released the Calendar of Activities for the year 2025-26, wherein the major focus has been given to fairness and transparency in the selection of players/teams.
As per the Calendar, 40 observers would be nominated with 2 from each district prior to the conduct of the tournaments to make the officials involved in the activities answerable and accountable and the selection process more vibrant and transparent.
While releasing the Calendar, Commissioner/Secretary Youth Services and Sports, Sh Sarmad Hafeez and Director General Youth Services and Sports, Sh Rajinder Singh Tara said the emphasis has been given to disclose the selection lists on the spot at the venues itself, otherwise, to make an end to the practice of asking the players to confirm about their selection from the offices or via phone calls.
“It has been decided and put in the Activities’ Calendar that the selection lists must be announced at the venues’ itself. Moreover, to avoid any conflict of interest, it has also been decided that the officials whose wards will be in the fray will never figure in the selection panel,” maintained Sh Sarmad Hafeez.
With an aim to popularize all the 34 sports disciplines, 201 events of which are being organised by the Department of Youth Services and Sports for making the teams to represent J&K in the National School Games, held under the auspices of School Games Federation of India (SGFI), the events have been distributed among various districts as per merit of the game in a particular district.
Refresher Courses in the disciplines of Fencing, Boxing and other sports disciplines have been kept in the Calendar of Activities to help the officials acquire complete knowledge of the games and make endeavours to produce international stuff from the Union Territory.
According to the new Calendar, the sports activities as usual will begin at the grass-root level with intra-murals and will be followed by inter-schools, inter-zines, inter-districts, inter-divisions and then Inter-State at the national scene.
“Three member selection committees will be framed to pick the teams in various sports disciplines and the committees will be separate in each age group of a particular sports discipline. The provision of videography has also been kept in the Calendar,” said Tara.
A Coaching Camp of minimum 5 days has been kept for training district/division teams, while a Coaching Camp of minimum 10 days has been kept for training the State/UT team.
Further, the Joint Directors of twin divisions and the District Youth Services and Sports Officers have been asked to maintain the record of Selection Lists, Score Sheets, Match Fixtures, Movement Orders and Eligibilities for their further submission to the Directorate of Youth Services and Sports J&K.
