DC inaugurates Indian Oil District Badminton Championship

International players Manya Ralhan, Abhinav Thakur and Ram Lakhan honoured

Jalandhar: The Indian Oil District Badminton Championship being organized by the DBA at Raizada Hansraj Stadium was inaugurated by Deputy Commissioner Dr. Himanshu Aggarwal on Thursday. On this occasion the state of the art air conditioned gymnasium and synthetic court was also dedicated to the players.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Aggarwal said that playing builds personality in children and players learn to live life in a better way. He said Sports teaches us good values, morals and skills in life. The District Collector congratulated the interim committee for the development work done in the stadium. He further assured that more development work will be done in Hansraj Stadium in the coming time.

  Disclosing details about the championship, DBA Secretary and former national player Ritin Khanna said that more than 600 players are participating in 35 events. Competitions are being held in different age groups starting from Under-11 to Veteran categories. Total 500 matches will be played in next 4 days.The finals will be played on 11th August. Live streaming of matches will be done along with provision of free refreshments during the championship. DC Jalandhar Dr. Himanshu Aggarwal and Jalandhar Division Head of Indian Oil Rajan Berry will felicitate the winners on sunday. For the first time in the 50 year history of DBA, attractive prizes worth Rs 5 lakh will be given to the winners.

During the inauguration ceremony today, international players Manya Ralhan, Abhinav Thakur and Ram Lakhan were honored with cash prizes by DBA. It is worth mentioning that Former Sports Minister Sh. Meet Hayer had given a grant of Rs 23.16 lakhs for the upgradation of the stadium.Apart from this, cricketer and MP Harbhajan Singh had also given Rs 15.60 lakhs for the machinery of gymnasium.With these funds, a new air-conditioned gymnasium,a new synthetic court & hostel rooms were renovated in the stadium, which were dedicated to the players today.

On this occasion, Interim Committee Chairman Dr. Jai Inder Singh, Treasurer Palwinder Juneja, Rakesh Khanna, Mukul Verma, Aman Mittal, Ravneet Takhar, Kusum KP, Naresh Budhia and Dheeraj Sharma were also present.