Interschool and Open TT championship gets underway in Namchi

NAMCHI, 24 Oct: The 2nd Namchi Interschool and Open Table Tennis Championship 2013 was inaugurated at the Indoor Stadium here today by Chief Whip, Government of Sikkim, Ugen Gyatso Bhutia, accompanied by area MLA Namchi-Singithang, Binod Rai as the guest of honour.
In his welcome address, the Namchi SDM, Karma R Bonpo, stated that the primary objective of the tournament was to promote upcoming rural TT talent in the state. He further said that though there are financial constraints, the event saw the light of day due to the financial assistance provided by hydel project developers, departments and likeminded people.
Addressing the opening ceremony, chief guest Mr. Bhutia congratulated NTTA for organizing this tournament especially for the students and budding TT talent. He informed the gathering of students and public that the present ruling Government is pro-education and pro-youth. Mentioning the recent distribution of laptops to students, he stated that the aim was to open the minds of the young generation of Sikkim. The chief guest also handed over an amount of Rs.25000 to the NTTA.
The programme was also addressed by president of SVTTA, Kuber Bhandari. He stated that they were impressed by the scale of the event that was being hosted today.
These sentiments were echoed by president STTA, CK Basnett who is also the president of the Sikkim Olympic Association. He informed the TT players gathered today that from now on all equipment needed by them could be bought through STTA at 50% discount on the retail price. He further went on to say that Namchi Table Tennis Association should concentrate on sending players for national and state level tournaments too.
Speaking on the occasion, the DC who is the patron of the NTTA said that they were pleased that the event being hosted had received such a tremendous response and even though there were some initial hiccups, the event is sure to succeed as they had the support of the parent associations and of the Government.
Students from seventeen government and private schools are participating in the inter-school competition. Friday would see the finals of the Inter-School Competition which would be attended by the MLA Zoom Salghari Constituency, Madan Cintury as chief guest and Adhakshya, CL Gurung as special guest.
The event was also attended by Zilla Adhakshya South, CL Gurung, Upadhakshya South, Devi Maya Baraily, Chairman Namchi Municipal Council, BT Tamang, Vice Chairman, NH Ansari, president Sikkim Table Tennis Association and Sikkim Olympic Association, CK Basnet, general secretary Sikkim Veteran's Table Tennis Association Kuber Bhandari, Joint Secretary STTA, Tashi Wangyal Lepcha, DC South cum Patron NTTA, Prabhakar Verma, ADC (Dev) Namchi, Benu Gurung, ADC (Dev) Ravangla, Tashi Chopel, president NTTA, Joint Director (S/W) Sports and Youth Affairs, Kamal Chettri, president and the members of various NGOs and Association, school heads, teachers, students and the members of NTTA.