Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Anurag Thakur paid a surprise visit to the Jain University Global Campus-venue for 13 disciplines including new additions Mallakhamba and Yogasana. 

The athletic young minister walked to various sporting arenas and took cognizance of the arrangements made for the participants to ensure they have a memorable event at the KIUG. Reminiscent of his playing days as a cricketer, the minister said, "Jain University along with the Karnataka State Government is doing a fantastic job of hosting these events with best facilities for athletes taking part in the Khelo India University Games. Watching these athletes here today, I am reminded of my University days when I played cricket. Some of the tournaments held in places like Darbhanga and Samastipur in Bihar, the facilities used to not be up to the mark. But infrastructure has improved so much today and you can see the kind of facilities being provided here for athletes. Our initiative through the KIUG is to provide athletes a platform that is on-par with international standards."

On asked what he would say to budding athletes, Shri Thakur said, "Play in the spirit of sportsmanship. I would advice them to propagate clean sports and not use performance enhancements drugs. That's why we have NADA here to give athletes the right information and create more awareness about doping particularly to young athletes at the university level."

He even interacted with participants from different universities to learn about their events and their ambitions in sport.

One such athlete the minister spoke with was S Santhosh of SRM university men’s volleyball team. He said, “ It was a humbling experience meeting with our sports minister Shri Anurag Thakur Ji. He encouraged us to keep putting in the hard work  and keep playing for our respective state and universities. It always feels very motivating when the minister himself comes up to us and has a chat regarding our sport, also not every day do we get to witness a senior minister playing with the athlete which only makes us feel even more overwhelmed  ”

The sports minister arrived at the volleyball venue in the morning when the matches between HRM(Himachal Pradesh university) and AWU (Adamas university West Bengal) in the women’s section and SRM university Chennai and AWU in men’s section was underway. He interacted with both the teams and wished them good luck for their upcoming matches. He also had an interaction with the referees and the audience too. Apart from this, the minister indulged in a round of volleyball himself.

 *******

NB/OA