Punjab: Village people are interested in sports

Punjab: 70-year-old Pritam Kaur was exercising in an open gymnasium at a sports park in Mullanpur Dakha village on Thursday. She was accompanied by two elderly women Paramjit Kaur (62) and Inderjit Kaur (73), who were doing other fitness programmes. This is one of the sports parks in Dakha built on an area of ​​over 7 acres in the village. There are 70 such green parks in Mullanpur Dakha constituency, where villagers have access to various high-end sports facilities like cricket, basketball, volleyball, hockey, running track, open gym, hurdle net, etc., and people of all age groups are availing the facility free of cost. The brainchild and dream project of SAD (B) MLA from Dakha constituency Manpreet Singh Ayali, these 70 sports parks were built at a cost of over Rs 40 crore between 2015 and 2016, when the Akali Dal government was in power in Punjab. Even after the change of power in Punjab, with the Congress ruling the state from 2017 to 2022 and now the Aam Aadmi Party in power, these sports parks are being well maintained, that too without the help of any fixed financial support from the state government or panchayats.

The villagers have formed village committees, youth clubs and the members contribute to fund the maintenance expenses. Some sports parks are completely adopted by NRIs. Like in Sheikhupura village, NRI Jasvir Singh from Brampton Canada is bearing the entire maintenance of the park. Elderly woman Pritam Kaur said, “Before 2015, there was no such beautiful spiral sports park in the Mullanpur constituency, where people of all ages could sit, exercise and play games. With the construction of such parks, not only the youth and children, but even the elderly like me have become fitness freaks. I visit the parks twice a day with my friends.” Inderjit Kaur (73) said villagers, despite their different political affiliations, gather in these parks daily to play and do physical exercise. Dakha MLA Manpreet Ayali told The Tribune that it was her dream project. After becoming an MLA, she started the project and in less than two years, she built and handed over 70 sports parks to the villagers. “I spent more than Rs 1 crore from my own pocket and after the Congress government came to power, I could not get that money back. Still, I have no regrets as my initiative has made the villagers addicted to sports and fitness and the youth have shunned drugs,” Ayali said.