A lot of upcoming shooters from the hamlets of Uttar Pradesh, including Seema Tomar, silver medal winner at Dorset World Cup, owe their success to Mr Rahul Gandhi as the young Congress MP donated his pistols for their training.
Mr Gandhi, who trained under Dr Raj Pal before leaving for political shores, gave two of his air pistols to his coach and the gesture proved quite beneficial for the budding shooters.
Dr Raj Pal has since been training aspiring shooters in his institute in Johadi village in Baghpat district of UP.
Ms Tomar, who initially trained with Mr Gandhi’s pistol, has not met him yet but want to personally thank him besides requesting him for more help in providing better infrastructure and facilities for sportspersons. “There are six MPs among the present lot who have received training from me and Rahul is the wisest of them as he not only donated his pistols for others to train but also asked me to work on creating conducive atmosphere for the development of to the game specially in his constituency, Amethi,” Dr Raj Pal told PTI.
As of now, Dr Raj Pal has four pistols from which one has been donated by Jayant Singh, RLD MP from Mathura, and another by his disciple Sunita Singh who went on to become an IPS officer in 1996.
Dr Raj Pal, who is superintendent in a Delhi hospital and is due to retire next year, said he has picked some girls from Amethi region for training through camps.
He said among the lot, three girls have done him proud. “Ruchi Singh has got junior Olympic quota. Mahajbeen Bano has got admission in prestigious St. Stephens and along with Varchika Singh these three are in the junior team of Air India,” Dr Raj Pal said, adding that all three hail from various villages of Amethi. He said when he last met Mr Gandhi he advised him not to open a shooting a range in Amethi until proper infrastructure comes up. —PTI