Srinagar, Jan 26 : Faisal Ali Dar, a martial arts coach from Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir was among the 128 sports persons who were facilitated with the Padma Shri Award for his achievements in the field of sports here on Wednesday. Ali who has set up a martial arts training academy, “Ali Sports Academy ” has several awards in his kitty besides the Padma Shri he won for his tireless efforts in the field of sports. “I won the national award for the campaign against the drug addiction “Nasha Mukht” when I counseled 47 children who had became addicted to drugs and bring back them to normal life after putting them in my sports academy”, Ali told UNI. Started his journey in 2003 when he was practicing martial arts, he said “ there was no support from the people initially as the culture of the game was entirely different for them.” “Even when I won the Asian Championship medal in 2010, still I was not satisfied with myself and had passion to do more for this sports”, he said and added “I started an academy “Ali Sports Academy” and gradually I converted it into the training academy centre for the children”, Ali said. He said he decided to train small kids in the age group of 2 to 7 years in kung Fu and eight among them participated at the international level besides hundreds have participated in national events. Ali’s academy has 17 branches in different districts of Jammu and Kashmir where children not only learn martial arts but also other sports like Rugby, water sports, Badminton and volleyball. “I urge the parents to encourage their children for sports activities for their better future”, Ali said and added “If they are paying for tuition fee they should also give some money for the sports activities so that their children can excel in sports as well”. A sports person has to be prepared first at the local level, then national and after that at the international level following in the particular field. Parsing the new sports policy introduced by the Jammu and Kashmir government, Ali said the policy will encourage sports persons to explore their talent in different sporting fields. The government of Jammu and Kashmir recently announced a gazetted job for the sports persons who wins any award in any sports field. (UNI)