{"id":18883,"date":"2026-05-04T18:01:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/?p=18883"},"modified":"2026-05-04T18:01:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:01:30","slug":"sports-key-to-fight-drug-menace-shahid-choudhary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/sports-key-to-fight-drug-menace-shahid-choudhary\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports key to fight drug menace: Shahid Choudhary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Srinagar, May 04:\u00a0<\/strong>Secretary\/Commissioner Youth Services and Sports, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary on Monday said that youth remain the \u201csoul and central force\u201d of Jammu &amp; Kashmir\u2019s development, asserting that sports is emerging as a powerful tool to counter the growing drug menace in the Union Territory.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing a gathering at University of Kashmir, where over 190 students from different states participated in a Wushu event, Choudhary said the past five to six years have seen a clear shift towards youth-centric policies, particularly in sports and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n<p>He said a \u201cmission mode\u201d campaign for a drug-free Jammu &amp; Kashmir, launched on April 11, is being strengthened through sports initiatives. \u201cDrug addiction traps individuals in chains and takes away their freedom. There can be no better alternative than sports to break this cycle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Highlighting infrastructure growth, Choudhary said around 625 sports facilities have been developed across schools, colleges, villages and remote areas in the last four years. \u201cEvery playground we build stands against the drug ecosystem and every league we create channels youth energy in a positive direction,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Referring to Wushu, he said the sport represents balance, resilience and respect and noted its inclusion in the Youth Olympics, expressing hope for its future inclusion in the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n<p>The Secretary further said that inputs from a recent \u2018Chintan Shivir\u2019 stressed the need to strengthen grassroots sports to improve India\u2019s Olympic medal tally. \u201cAround 50 per cent of sports still need wider participation, and talent identification must begin at the ground level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Choudhary also highlighted the implementation of the Khelo Bharat policy (2025-26), stating that J&amp;K has secured around 84 per cent alignment with Government of India benchmarks, placing it among the top-performing regions.<\/p>\n<p>He added that sports are also being linked with economic development, including tourism and local products, citing Kashmir\u2019s GI-tagged willow bat as a key example.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the event was attended by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, senior officials, and participants from across the country<strong>\u2014(KNO)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Srinagar, May 04:\u00a0Secretary\/Commissioner Youth Services and Sports, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary on Monday said that youth remain the \u201csoul and central force\u201d of Jammu &amp; Kashmir\u2019s development, asserting that sports is emerging as a powerful tool to counter the growing drug menace in the Union Territory. Addressing a gathering at University of Kashmir, where over 190 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18885,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18883\/revisions\/18885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}