Shooting associations in Jharkhand have virtually engaged in war of words with each other as Jharkhand State Rifle Association affiliated to Jharkhand Olympic Association (JOA) has sharply criticised the ongoing State Shooting Championship at Tikait Umrao Shooting Range of Hotwar Mega Sports Complex inaugurated by Sports Minister Geetashree Oraon on Friday.
Notably, the organisers of this event who are affiliated to The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) have succeeded in conducting this championship. However, for this same level tournament Jharkhand State Rifle Association was unable to show its hosting capacity due to Government’s ignorance, they said.
Sanjesh Mohan Thakur, Secretary General of Jharkhand State Rifle Association said, “We as a local sports body have trained aspiring young shooters with our own expenses at self managed infrastructure like schools and apartments across the State in districts covering Ranchi, Garhwa and Dhanbad for past 12 years. Also, we have contributed in the management of 34th National Games held at this world class sports hub. But, our proposal to organise a State level tournament at the same Tikait Umrao Shooting Range was ignored by the State Government last year. Biasness in such matters is not justified on State Government’s part.”
On the other hand, a governing body member of NRAI from the New Delhi office said, “We are not bothered with such blames of the local sports bodies. Whatever be the matter, we will consider the scores of this shooting tournament at our national stage.”
The shooting range had remained unused after the end of national games thereby resulting to deterioration. Despite this fact, the local unit rifle trainers have been kept away from practicing at this range. “We have been requesting the State Government to allot us a proper space as we take the risk of training in public places. This way the area would have got regular maintenance scope,” Thakur added. Ashok Kumar, Director of State Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs said, “We are third party and cannot comment on such issues.” Adding more to this neutral attitude, an official informed that he was not aware of this fact. “I do not know the reason behind the tension between State rifle unit and NRAI so cannot comment,” the officer said.