A boy plays on the parched Khajuria pond in Ranchi that has dried up in the scorching summer. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Jamshedpur, June 5: The government has woken up, a trifle too late.

Ace archers Dola Banerjee and Reena Kumari, offered jobs in the police department, are set to turn them down as they have already found employment elsewhere.

If they do so, it will be another slap in the face of the government, which was severely embarrassed after Team India wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted for Indian Airlines over the job of deputy superintendent of police being given by his state. Dhoni had turned down the offer, saying Indian Airlines was the first to give him the job.

If Dola and Reena too follow suit, it will be further embarrassment for the government which is facing charges of not doing anything for the sportspersons from the state.

Sources said the government?s offer could be described as a knee-jerk reaction after ace archer Jhanu, as reported by The Telegraph last week, said she was considering quitting the sport as she was without a job.

At a Cabinet meeting yesterday, the government decided to offer Jhanu and Dola the jobs of deputy superintendent of police, while Reena has been given an inspector?s post. While Jhanu could take up the offer, Dola and Reena, who joined Eastern Railway on May 31, said they would find it difficult to change track now. Dola has been appointed as a clerk while Reena has got the job of a ticket collector. Both the archers will be posted in Howrah.

?I have already landed a job with Eastern Railway. How can I accept the job offer of the Jharkhand government,? Dola said from Bangalore, where she and Reena are attending the national camp.

The government, she lamented, should have come out with the offer earlier. ?It is too late now. I have already signed a bond of five years with the railways. I have to pay Rs 5 lakh if I break the bond,? the 25-year-old archer said.

Echoing her colleague, Reena said she too has signed a three-year bond with her employers.

?I have to speak to my family about the job offer from the government,? she said, adding that she was bound to honour the bond.

Reena, 22, who qualified for the pre-quarters in the Olympic Games in Athens last year, asked why the government had offered her the post of inspector. ?My credentials as an archer are no less than Dola and Jhanu. So why has the government offered me the post of an inspector? The government should have also offered me the post of DSP,? she fumed.

Both the archers have earlier been employed on contract with Tata Steel. They quit in March after getting a positive response from Eastern Railway.