Shooting: Players spend own money on guns

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 16

Shooting, like golf, is known to a sport for the well heeled and the same is being proved true at Government Rajindra College here. 

Students who have taken up shooting as a sport face a difficult situation. 

Although they have a shooting range on the college campus, they don’t have guns and rifles to practice with.

To overcome the problem and deal with the college’s inability to bear the burden of buying expensive shooting equipment, the players have no option but to buy pistols on their own.

Head of the department of physical education at the college, Prof Surjit Singh said, “The college took the initiative and constructed the shooting range on its premises about 12-13 years ago and also constructed a new building for it sometime later. Government Rajindra College is the third government institute, which has a shooting range on its premises, apart from Badal Sports Wing and Punjabi University, Patiala.”

“Despite Bathinda being a comparatively smaller city, the sport of shooting is gaining popularity here. There are 10-12 students of the college who are currently enrolled with the shooting range at the college. The college has also arranged for a shooting coach. Veerpal Kaur from Badal Sports Wing visits the college as a part-time shooting coach for the college students,” Singh said.

Accepting that the guns and rifles used in the sport are too expensive to be bought by the college, Singh said, “The college receives no funds for encouraging shooting among students. The college built the range from its own funds and has recently made it air-conditioned. Since the guns and rifles are too expensive, costing Rs 1.5 lakh and above, the players have to spend their own money to buy them.”

Meanwhile, with the initiative taken by the college and the interest shown by the players, students have brought laurels to the college by clinching positions in inter-college and inter-university shooting competitions.

Expensive shooting equipment

• Although students have a shooting range on the college campus, they don’t have guns and rifles to practice with.
• To overcome the problem and deal with the college’s inability to bear the burden of buying expensive shooting equipment, the players have no option but to buy pistols on their own.