Pulwama, July 13: The youth from various areas of the saffron town Pampore in south Kashmir have appealed to authorities to address the issue of water-logging at Iqbal Stadium, Tanchibagh. They have accused the Youth Services and Sports Department of neglecting the sports field.
Adil Ahmad, a sports promoter from Pampore town, said this is the main playfield in the area under Youth Services and Sports which is used for playing cricket, football and other games like martial arts. He, however, said that for unknown reasons, it is being ignored by the authorities.
“The playfield often gets submerged after every rainfall, causing disruption in the play schedule,” he said, adding that in the past four months, they were able to ensure only 15 playing days.
“For most of the days, it remained stagnated with water,” Adil said while appealing to the authorities to take cognizance of the matter.
Another youth from the town said they have brought the issue of water-logging at Iqbal Stadium Tanchibagh to the notice of authorities many times in the past ten years but to no avail.
“We took up this matter with previous DC Pulwama during his visit to the stadium but despite his assurances nothing was done to address it,” he said. We have several highlighted the issue through the media but no attention was paid to it, he added.
The sportspersons said the youth of the town contributed from their pockets and collected a big amount which they spent for preparing the pitch and ground maintenance. “The turf has been affected by the water-logging and all of our hard work went into the drain,” they said.
They demanded levelling the surface of the playfield, its regular maintenance and the construction of a protection wall to prevent rainwater from entering the ground.
District Officer, Youth Services and Sports, Pulwama, Jagdish Raj told Rising Kashmir that he will direct the sports officer Pampore to prepare a requisition in this regard. “The proposal will be taken in the next year’s plan,” he said.
