Punjab Congress Chief Partap Singh Bajwa today said that the absence of sports culture and drug menace have pushed the state out of competition in sports at national and international level.
Speaking at the concluding ceremony of a kabaddi tournament at village Dhemawali in this district, Bajwa complimented the youth club members for their sportsmanship and engaging youngsters in sports activities.
He said that Punjab was in the grip of drug menace and youth was falling victim to drugs.
"It was unfortunate that Punjab drew blank in the medal tally of National Games and Punjab sportsmen performed poorly in Commonwealth Games and Asian Games last year. No individual from Punjab has qualified for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Brazil," he said.
He said that Punjab had produced legends like Dara Singh (Wrestling), Milkha Singh in athletics, Dhayan Chand, Ajit Pal Singh (Hockey) and cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh.
He said that the hockey team of India which won gold in 1975 World Cup had all the 11 playing members from Punjab and team was got trained by the then Chief Minister Giani Zail Singh.
Bajwa said that SAD-BJP government had during the last seven years made no headway in sports.
"They had made false promises in its manifesto to start Guru Hargobind Sport scholarship and best sportsperson in each district to get Rs 10,000 scholarships per year, to build air conditioned stadium in each district and sport budget would be be doubled," he said.
