Tawi Trekkers J&K Appoint New Leadership: Shawetica Khajuria and Sonam Sidharth Elevated as President and General Secretary

Jammu, 09-03-2024 : In keeping with its policy of handing   over reigns of management to younger lot of the club in a phased manner and also involve maximum number of lady members to run the club’s affairs  Tawi Trekkers J&K, the pioneer trekking club of J&K, unanimously elevated Shawetica Khajuria, an international sport climbing judge, as President and Sonam Sidharth, a mountaineer, as General Secretary of the club in an election meeting held at Press Club of Jammu, today. 

 While Arti Sharma, a senior member and Principal of Apple Kids International Pre- School was unanimously elected as the Senior Vice President, Mridhu Padha, vice principal of St Xavier Convent Sr. Secondary School, Barnai was retained as Vice President.  

Other members elected unanimously were  Shilpa Charak, an international sport climber and a mountaineer as Joint Secretary and  Shashi Kant Sharma as the new Treasurer of the club. 

 Whereas Senior members Sushil Singh (Samba), Sunil Chakharia (Bishnah) and Anukampa Sharma of Udhampur were retained, Shobha Rajput, a pioneer sport climber of J&K (Samba), Seema Kharyal, a celebrated athlete of Jammu, Sakshi Magotra (Kishatwar) Binder Pal Singh, Anu Sharma, a prominent sport person (Akhnoor) , Sourav Deep Singh, a mountaineer (Surinsar), Prerna Charak (Rajouri) and Sanjeevani Bhardwaj of Mendhar (Poonch) were unanimously added as eleven  Executive members of the club to manage  various activities of the club

Elections were  conducted by Ram Khajuria,a founder member and outgoing President of the club, in the presence of an  Observer from  Mountaineering Association of J&K  Rakesh Goswami, President of the District Mountaineering Association, Jammu.  

In the end a resolution was proposed by Zorawar Singh Jamwal, Co -Chairman of the club and unanimously passed by the newly elected body for nominating Ram Khajuria as an Advisor of the club. It may be mentioned here that 74 years old Ram Khajuria, the founder General Secretary of Tawi Trekkers J&K, who served the club with distinction for a long period of 32 years as  General Secretary and 8 years as President  was  founder President of Mountaineering Association of J&K also and  remained its General Secretary also for 12 years. He was  Secretary of Indian Mountaineering Foundation North Zone Committee for over  12 years and during this period North Zone produced a number of international sport climbers. He was also nominated as Co- Chairman of Indian Mountaineering Foundation, North Zone Committee New Delhi, the national body for adventure sports in the country but he humbly declined the offer and  focused fully on the promotion of adventure activities in the  state.

Earlier, the club welcomed its Patron  Rahul Sharma, Chairman, Sprawling Buds ICSE School; Co- Chairman  Zorawar Singh Jamwal; Vivek Chauhan, Patron District Mountaineering Association, Jammu  and Rakesh Goswami, an observer from Mountaineering Association of J&K. Chairman of the club Sh. Anil Goswami, Union Home Secretary (Rtd) and Legal Advisor of the club Prem Sadotra, however, could not attend the meeting due to certain unavoidable reasons.               

Before the elections, in a meeting of the veteran members of the club, the members expressed satisfaction about the performance and achievements of the club. They felt pride in the fact that the club has produced so many national champions and international sport climbers besides a number of  brilliant mountaineers who have scaled formidable peaks including Everest, Kangchenjunga, Manaslu and Shivling.   

In the end Shawetica Khajuria, President and Sonam Sidharth , General Secretary of the club thanked the members for reposing so much faith in them and promised to work with full dedication to come up to their expectations and take the club to new heights.