Rajyavardhan delay s UP sports policy

Lucknow, Mar 10 (UNI) Athens Olympic silver medallist double-trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has refused to give his suggestions for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Sports Policy due to paucity of time, which has delayed its passage.

If the UP Sports Department sources are to be believed, the 36-year-old double-trap shooter kept the state government's request to provide suggestions to the upcoming policy for over three months before refusing to provide vital inputs.

Sources further said that the state government had four months ago, constituted a high-level committee consisting of stick wizard Olympian and Padamshree awardee Mohammad Shahid, Arjuna Awardee spiker Ranbir Singh and the ace marksman Rathore to provide inputs for the Sports Policy.

A time of three months was given to the trio for completing the job, sources said, adding that while Mr Shahid and Mr Singh submitted their suggestions much before the stipulated period, Olympic silver medalist, did not even bother to send a response during the same period.

''We consulted the Chief Minister in this regard, who directed us to send another request to the ace shooter and give a fortnight's time to Mr Rathore,'' UP Sports and Youth Welfare minister R K Chowdhary told UNI over phone recently.

''Mr Rathore has certainly delayed the passage of the Sports Policy, which would have otherwise been announced by the end of February,'' Mr Chowdhary maintained.

''If he was faced with time constraints, why did he not make it clear to us in the beginning only. If Mr Rathore would have informed us on this within the stipulated period of three months, we could have saved vital time and certainly arrived at the appropriate Sports policy,'' Mr Chowdhary added.

Mr Chowdhary further claimed that it was after 15 days expiry that Rathore sent his reply, in which he refused to suggest anything for the Sports policy due to ''paucity of time.'' MORE UNI MB ARS PM PM1153