On a holiday in his hometown, ace shooter Gagan Narang got a jolt from the blue, says a report in The Hindu, adding that the Maharashtra Government on Friday served a notice on the London Olympics bronze medallist, asking him to vacate his ‘Gun For Glory’ shooting academy from the premises of Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune by March 31.
“I am shocked,” exclaimed the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardee. “I just cannot understand the logic in this move. We have been paying annual rent to the Government, and we have been very successful in shaping young talent besides training the internationals as our results show,” explained the 29-year-old.
“In fact, I was expecting a pat on the back for all the good work done in Pune and was hoping to be given all cooperation in reciprocating this kind of initiative by having similar academies across Maharashtra and also in other States,” said a crestfallen Gagan, winner of eight gold medals at the Commonwealth Games.
According to a report in The Times Of India, the Maharashtra government has told sports academies housed at the Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex at Balewadi here to wind up by March 31, without assigning any reason.
In a "stop-activity" letter issued on Friday, state deputy director of sports and youth services Janak Tekale, who is in charge of the multi-disciplinary venue, informed the Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation (GNSPF) that the lease agreement with the Khel Ratna winner's Gun For Glory (GFG) shooting academy was being terminated. "An agreement between director of sports, Maharashtra, and your academy was signed on 5-5-2011... It ended on April 2012. We have decided to review the usage of sports facilities at the complex. So, the arrangement stands cancelled after March 31, 2013," the notice to GNSPF, a copy of which is with TOI, says.
A similar letter has been sent to Olympian Nikhil Kanetkar, who runs a badminton academy; the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA), which is in charge of the tennis facility; and Bhushan Thakur, who coaches table tennis players at the complex.
Meanwhile according to a report in the DNA, a day after the deputy director of Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex sent termination notices to sports academies housed in the Balewadi facility, Maharashtra sports minister Padmakar Valvi condemned the move. What’s more, he has promised to resolve the issue at the earliest.
