Girls’ hockey wing at school closed, players shifted to Mohali centre

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, July 22

The residential hockey wing at Government Girls’ Senior Secondary School, Nehru Garden, here, which was once famous for producing Indian players has been closed by the Punjab Sports Department.

As per reports, the horrible living conditions at the school hostel has forced the authorities concerned to announce its closure and shift players to the Mohali sports centre. A total of 31 players that include 20 hockey and 11 athletic players were residing here and had regularly complained about the poor condition and lack of facilities in the hostel.

Though the school at Nehru Garden has a name in the history of the Indian hockey as it has produced many hockey stalwarts such as Ajinder Kaur (Arjuna Awardee), Rajbir Kaur (Olympian), Nisha Sharma and Sharanjeet Kaur (Asian Games gold medalist) and Pritpal Kaur, along with numerous national and international players, but the Sports Department has miserably failed to keep its glory alive.

A player requesting anonymity said: “One does not have to enter the building or washrooms of the hostel to see its condition. The outer appearance of the building is enough to reveal the condition in which inmates were living.”

Water remains stranded on the ground for days and it even enters the building of the hostel, balconies were crumbling and there were no windows in rooms. Washrooms were in a dilapidated condition. Sanitary and electricity fittings inside the hostel were missing or unusable, she added.

Players said they were happy to be shifted to Mohali as their numerous requests to the sports authorities in the past to get the building repaired had fallen on deaf ears.

“Sports students need comfortable accommodation and a balanced diet so that they can concentrate on their game without having to worry for any boarding or lodging problems,” said another player.

“The sports authorities in 2017 proposed to construct a new hostel and then too, we were shifted to the other sports wing. However, even after the hostel remained closed for around 12 or 14 months, it was not upgraded and we were accommodated in the same gloomy building,” the players said. District Sports Officer Balwinder Singh said he confirmed that the players had been shifted to Mohali and the construction work at the hostel would begin soon.