3rd Dirt Endeavour Moto Cross at Tura begins

FROM OUR STAFF CORRESPONDENT

TURA, Sept 5: Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma flagged off the 3rd Dirt Endeavor Moto Cross-2015, organized by Garo Hills Adventure Motor Sports Association (GAMA) in collaboration with Garo Hills Adventurers Association (GAA) at Dakgre, here on Friday morning.

Addressing the participants briefly before the flag off, the Chief Minister express his deep sense of appreciation to GAMA for organizing such an event and said that it is definitely a need for the adventurous young minds to ensure that they get a platform to unleash their talents, which can create a lot of positive energy for others. “Such sporting events are required to eble others to connect with the people in this region, see what good things are happening here, create positive stories and ensure that people have a reason to visit our place”, he said.

He further said that GAMA should make it an annual event and suggested that they approach the Government in advance and prepare a calendar prospectively for the succeeding years so that people know about it and come forward to participate.

It may be mentioned that there are 45 participants in the event this year, out of which 17 are from across the country.

Stating that there is a need to understand the impact of sports and how it can unify the community, the society and the tion, the Chief Minister said that the Government in a humble way has been taking the initiative to ensure that we have appropriate investment and support to promote all kinds of sporting activities across the State, adding that to ensure that there is easier way of getting access to that kind of support, the Government has started a programme through decentralization of the funds at the level of the Deputy Commissioner as the chairman under the Chief Minister’s Youth Development Fund. “We have also constituted the District Sports Promotion Societies which was conceptualized to ensure that there is a platform available for all such organizers to get connected with the agencies of the government and get all the necessary support” he added.

He wished all the potential partners like GAMA take advantage of this programme and ensure that the youth of the region has a platform for engaging themselves in this kind of positive and productive activities.

This region also has potentialities in certain disciplines like Boxing, Judo and other individual sports, he said, adding that sports like football has actually been creating stories as far as Meghalaya is concerned. “With 1.21 billion population we should show the way that Meghalaya and few other Northeastern states can actually create a World Cup team for football” he said and informed the gathering about Government’s proposal for two football stadiums, one in Tura and the other at Ampati, which are in the fil stages of consideration for sanction. Another mega project is the Sports Complex in Shillong for which the State has posted a project of 160 crores, he added, saying “These are the kind of investment that the State is looking at and supplement with various other strengths that we have to ensure that we fructify our dream of making Meghalaya a destition”.