Chandigarh (IANS): To promote the traditional martial art of Gatka, Punjab has accorded recognition to it as a game, a government spokesman said on Monday.

Gatka has been enlisted as a game in the gradation list of recognised sports enlisted in the state sports policy.

The move to include Gatka as a game was welcomed by parliamentarian and World Gatka Federation president Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Asian Gatka Federation president S.P. Singh Oberoi.

Gatka promoters said it was a long pending demand of Gatka players to enlist this age-old sport in the gradation list of recognised games so that the players could avail all facilities being provided to other games and players, including reservation of three percent quota in all posts and admissions.

Dhindsa said the Gatka federations were managing, standardising, promoting and reviving Gatka, a martial art for combat and self defence, as a game in the country.