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Jharkhand handball outfit trainees at JRD Tata Sports Complex on Friday. (Bhola Prasad)
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Leading Jharkhand to the summit clash of the 34th Junior National Handball Championship has won cadets of the Tata Steel Handball Training Centre rich dividends.
The girls walked home with Rs 18,000 each for their efforts during the nationals, which were held at Margaon in Goa from November 10 to 15 last year. Jharkhand had emerged the runner-up at the meet.
Ten handball eves — Rinki Kumari, Shivangi Majhi, Nutan Kumari, Sonali Majhi, Shilpi Rani Khalko, Sangita Kumari, Sangita Mahto, Harpreet Kaur, Roshni Bist and Sweta Kumari — received their scholarship cheques from sports minister Sudesh Mahto during National Sports Day celebrations in Ranchi on August 29.
However, four players — Puja Sharma, Vandana Sharma and Priyanka Kumari from Bokaro and Padma Rao from Jamshedpur — have to wait for their prize because they have not submitted their scholarship forms to the sports department yet.
According to Jharkhand Handball Association secretary Khurshid Khan, the scholarships were earmarked for performance of state outfits in national championships held from April 1, 2011, to March 31 this year. The handballers became eligible for the reward as the junior nationals was held within this time frame.
Khan said the Tata Steel Training Centre had duly submitted scholarship forms to the association, which routed it to the sports department. “Copies of scholarship forms were also submitted to district sports officer Sarwar Imam. However, Bokaro eves failed to submit theirs. Padma submitted hers, but papers were not found at the sports department,” he said.
He added that the four players need not be disheartened because they would get what they rightly deserved in due course of time.
“Sports department functionaries have assured us of the same. The handballers may get their scholarships on Statehood Day (November 15).”
In another development, the state handball outfit declined to host the 40th senior women’s national meet, scheduled in December, owing to dearth of sponsorship.
Khan said the Handball Federation of India had asked Jharkhand to prepare to host the event, which had originally been allotted to Assam. “The law and order situation in that state had made the federation approach Jharkhand. But, we will not be able to host the senior nationals because we have no sponsor. We are not in a position to host the event on our own,” the JHA secretary explained.
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