Punjab Govt to set up 10m shooting range in one school of each dist: Bains
Mohali, August 20
To promote shooting in government schools, the state government has decided to set up 10m shooting ranges in at least one school in each district, said Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains.
Bains was at the Mohali Shooting Range today to felicitate the Olympians and international shooting players on the occasion of the Punjab State Shooting Championship held by the Punjab Rifle Shooting Association.
The first shooting range would come up at Sri Anandpur Sahib. He said the state would also promote hockey in schools by laying six-side astroturfing. Similarly, swimming would also be promoted in government schools.
Appreciating the contribution of players in the recently held Paris Olympics, he said that after hockey — in which 10 Punjab players represented the Indian team — Punjab is also marching ahead to be the nursery of shooting players as it has contributed 7 out of a total 17 shooters at the Olympics. A cash prize of Rs 1 crore each to the eight players of the hockey team, besides Rs 15 lakh each to the other 11 participants of the Olympics was awarded.
Earlier, the Punjab government had given Rs 15 lakh to each player for gearing up for the Olympics. He felicitated the shooters who represented India during the Paris Olympics, including Sifat Kaur Samra, Anjum Moudgill, Arjun Babuta, Arjun Singh Cheema, Vijayveer Sidhu and World Champion Amanpreet Singh by awarding Rs 75,000 each on behalf of Punjab Rifle Shooting Association while Asian Games, World Cup winners and Asian Championship winners Ganimat Sekhon was awarded Rs 50,000, Gurjot Singh Khangura, Bhavteg Singh Gill, Harmehar Singh Lalli with Rs 25,000 each, Raj Kanwar Singh Sandhu, Sartaj Tiwana and Jasmin Kaur Rs 15,000 each while coaches Sukhraj Kaur and Gurpreet Singh felicitated with Rs 25,000 each. The 59th Punjab State Shooting Championship hosted at Mohali’s Phase 6 shooting range witnessed a record participation of 1,700 players across the district, out of which over 600 bagged positions.
He also announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh to the association for helping the underprivileged shooting players.
