The Jharkhand government on Wednesday gave direct appointment to 27 meritorious sportspersons under the sports quota in government jobs, for the first time since the creation of a separate state from Bihar.

Chief minister Hemant Soren handed over the appointment letters to the sportspersons (17 women and 10 men) at the cabinet auditorium in Ranchi.

Addressing the sportspersons, he said: “The selected sportspersons have won laurels despite infrastructure constraints and the government will try to involve them in governance and encourage them by making them economically stronger. The handing of appointment letters is just the beginning and we will be seeing similar joining letter distributions in future.”

Soren said that those sportspersons who have not received appointment letters should not be disheartened as the government is working on an action plan for all of them. All sportspersons will be given an opportunity to showcase their skills and get job opportunities, he added.

“We will be hosting more international and national competitions of different sports in Jharkhand to enable our talents to showcase their skills,” said the chief minister.

All the 27 sportspersons have been given jobs as constables in Jharkhand police.

The sportspersons who were handed over appointment letters are Lakhi Mandal, Jailaxmi Laguri, Tulsi Hembrom, Sumanlata Murmu and Sukmati Purty (all archery), Kumari Priyanka, Indu Munda, Rahul Minz, Jyoti Kumari and Deepak Bahadur Titung (all wushu), Aparna Kumari, Devanand Baskey, Sima Kumari Sinha and Vimla Munda (all karate), Kavita Kumari, Alok Lakra, Mohammed Abutalib Ansari, Rajiv Kumar Sahu and Nutan Manju Minz (all lawnball), Manisha Singh, Fani Bhusan Prasad, Parvin Akhtar and Priti Kumari (all taekwondo), Navin Kumar and Ramkumar Bhatt (cycling), Wasiul Hassan (handball) and Sangeeta Khalko (boxing).

Earlier this year, the government had appointed sports officers in all 24 districts.