By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 27 Dec: The 9th edition of the annual Shaheed Memorial Cricket Tournament hosted by UPES to pay tribute to the martyrs of the Indian Armed Forces and financially support their families, concluded today with the host team winning the tournament for the third time in a row.
Commencing on 13 December, the tournament was organised to remember and support the family of the late Naik Harendra Singh, hailing from Pipalsari Village in Pauri Garhwal district. He served with the 48 RR Battalion deployed in J&K for counter-insurgency operations and lost his life on 15 October 2021 in a search and destroy operation during cross-firing. The late Naik Harendra Singh is survived by his father, Chhavan Singh Rawat, mother Sarojini Devi, wife Lata Devi and two children.
At the presentation ceremony, Dr Sunil Rai, Chancellor, UPES, Sharad Mehra, Chairperson, HERS, and Manish Madaan, Registrar, UPES, presented the family of the soldier a cheque of Rs 2.51 lakhs raised through the tournament.
Launched in 2020, under project NAMAN, UPES has also decided to extend more support to the families of the martyrs. Besides raising money through the Shaheed Memorial Tournament, UPES will support both the sons of martyr Naik Harendra Singh with free education and a job to one member of the family at UPES.
Paying tribute to Naik Harendra Singh, Dr Sunil Rai, Chancellor, said, “It is our privilege to be supporting the family of such courageous soldiers and an honour for us to be able to support the dependants. The sacrifices of these soldiers and their contribution to the safety of the nation are immeasurable.”
The final match of the tournament was played, today, between UPES and Department of School Education. UPES won the match by 122 runs. The UPES team played consistently well with Kuldeep Kumar winning Man of the Match and Prakhar Nainwal won Best Batsman and Player of the Tournament. Hakimuddin from School Education was awarded as the Best Bowler and Team UPES and UP Irrigation won the Fair Play Award.
There were 10 teams from various Uttarakhand state departments that participated in the tournament to support the cause – Agriculture, Pay Jal Nigam, School Education, DG Medical, UP Irrigation, and Secretariat, among others.
