By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 31 Jan: As part of its support to 8 Government Primary Schools, UPES organised the 2nd Edition of the annual ‘Inter-School Sports & Cultural Competition’ – ‘Raftaar 2.0’ – at its Bidholi campus, here, today. UPES Vice Chancellor Dr Deependra Jha inaugurated the event. Over 300 students from Rajkiye Prathamik Vidyalayas (RPV) RPV-Bidholi; RPV-Bakarna; RPV-Bishenpur; PRV-Dunga; RPV-Kharakhet; RPV-Masras Patti; RPV-Paundha and RPV-Upper Kandoli participated and enjoyed the daylong fun activities.
Distributing ‘Winter Kits’ comprising a Woolen Blazer; Woolen Inner Set; Woolen Cap; two pairs of woolen socks and a pair of shoes to the primary school students, Dr Deependra Jha praised the humane efforts by the entire UPES-CSR Team in supporting primary education among the schools situated in a radius of 5 kilometres of the UPES Campuses through regular infrastructural support and academic interventions. Acknowledging the winners of ‘Raftaar 1.0’ Sports & Cultural Events Running Shields ‘RPV-Paundha’ & ‘RPV-Masras Patti’, Dr Deependra Jha extended his best wishes to all the participants for the current event.
The events of ‘Raftaar 2.0’ were conceived and executed by UPES ‘Faculty Conveners’ Assitant Professors Dr Pooja Gupta and Avita Katal. Over 300 young girls and boys from Class I to V from these state primary schools participated in multiple sports and cultural competitions that included ‘Sack Race; Skipping Rope; Treasure Hunt; Ball under the Chin; Three-legged Race; Tug of War & Theme-based Poster Making’ among the ‘Sports Events’, and ‘Solo Dance; Solo Singing; Playing a Musical Instrument; Fancy Dress Competition & Poem Recitation / Story Telling’ among the ‘Cultural Events’. In all, 40 Gold Trophies, 40 Silver Trophies, 21 Bronze Trophies and 320 Winners and Participant Certificates were awarded to the winners and participants of ‘Raftaar 2.0’. An outstanding performance by RPV-Bishenpur students catapulted their scores to the top position. A special relay race for the ‘Principals-Teachers Duo’ Teams became an added attraction of the day. The ‘Gold Trophy’ for the Relay Race went to RPV-Paundha. UPES also recognised two primary school students for their extraordinary achievements – Shagun from RPV-Bishenpur – a 2nd Position winner in a ‘State Level Painting Competition’; and Khushi from RPV-Paundha – a 1st Position winner in a district level ‘Spelling Competition’. They were a special Achievers’ Award, each. The panel of judges comprised Amrendra Tripathi; Dr Susheela Dahiya; Dr Nilima; Dr Anurag Jain, Dr Sandeep Pratap Singh, Dr PLL Annapurna; Nupur Jha, Dr Mariyam, Dr. Ratnesh Pandey and Dr Abhishek Misra.
Dr Deependra Jha presented the trophies and certificates to the winners of the ‘Sports Events’ along with Dr Monit Kapoor from SCS, UPES, while Seema Sehgal and Savita Dhand were the invited dignitaries for presenting the ‘Cultural Events’ awards.
Welcoming the Principals, Teachers and Students of all the participating schools to the Bidholi Campus of the University, Arun Dhand, Sr Director, UPES, and ‘Mentor-Raftaar’ stated that UPES-CSR had been providing need-based infrastructural support to these state run schools for over a decade. The UPES-CSR Faculty Mentors and Student Volunteers have been visiting these schools on a regular basis to supplement the efforts by their teachers in teaching mathematics and English to their students.
Manish Dubey made a special mention of the hard work put in by the ‘Event Faculty Coordinators’ Dr Pooja Gupta and Ms. Avita Katal in his vote of thanks. The contribution of ‘Faculty Mentors’ Team of Dr Ashish Verma, Dr Inder Singh, Dr Shalini Vohra, Amit Singh, Udit Raj Sharma, Dr Tanupriya Chaudhary, GN Sinha, Dr Pooja Gupta, Dr Vinita Singh, Kalpana Rangra and Goutam Datta along with their team of student volunteers was appreciated. The Administrative Team included Shashank Srivastava, Anjul Khanduri, Michael Williams, Vinay Chhetri, Shivani Dhiman, Anant Prakash Misra and Vishal Gangwar.
