• Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura 

Agartala, September 10, 2022 : With the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union minister of state for Social Justice and Empowerment Pratima Bhoumik kicked off multi-discipline sports competition under the banner of ‘Sansad Khel Spardha – 2022’ at Swami Vivekananda Maidan here in Agartala city on Saturday.

Bhoumik, who is an elected MP from the 1-West Tripura Parliamentary constituency organized a ‘Marathon’ on Saturday morning. She was accompanied by Education minister Ratanlal Nath, Dronacharya awardee Bisweswar Nandi, Padmashri gymnast Dipa Karmakar, AMC Mayor Dipak Majumder Acting President of Tripura Football Association Pranab Sarkar, TTDC chairman Santosh Saha, TCPCR chairman Nilima Ghosh and others.

Speaking at the programme, Bhoumik said “Prime Minister Narendra Modi have asked all the MPs to organize sports activities in their own constituencies across the country for once in a year. Alike Fit India, Khelo India and Yoga, this activity is being organized. Hence, to remain fit and bring people to the field, many activities have been initiated and this ‘Sansad Khel Spardha’ is part of it. Due to COVID pandemic, I failed to initiate this activity in 2020 and 2021.”

Citing the activities, she said “The sports of West Tripura district has been organized at Agartala, same will be held at Bishalgarh and Sonamura in Sepahijala district, Belonia and Santirbazar in South Tripura district, and Udaipur in Gomati district. Thereafter, football, volleyball and Kabaddi sports activities will be held at mandals, sub-divisions, districts and then state-level. The mandal, sub-division and district level will be completed by September 15. The semi-final matches will be completed by September 21, and final matches of Kabbadi and Volleyball will be held at Swami Vivekananda Maidan while the football will be held at police ground, AD Nagar.”

The union minister appealed to all people to attend these events and said let’s all of us make sports an important part and parcel of life.

Later, the Education minister Nath said that the ‘Sansad Khel Spardha’ is being organized for the first time. This is the vision of Prime Minister Modi and the activity is being organized throughout the country.

“Sports activities like- Kabbadi, football, volleyball, etc will be played. District level competition will be held at first followed by state-level. This activity is being organized for keeping ‘Healthy body, healthy mind, and healthy thinking’. In making the dream of ‘Ek Tripura Shrestha Tripura’ and ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ come true, the young generations are participating in large number”, he added.