School turns nursery for shooters

Arun Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Ropar, September 20

A government school at Jhallian Kalan village near Ropar town has emerged as a nursery for national and international shooters. Khushi Saini of Class X and Jasmeen Kaur of Class XI at Government Senior Secondary School, Jhallian Kalan, also known as Barri Jhallian, will be part of India’s junior team at the 14th Asian Shooting Championship, to be held from November 3 at Doha, Qatar.

Earlier too, Khushi had won a gold medal in the youth category during the Punjab State Open Championship. Last year, during the 62nd National Schools Championship held at Trivandrum, Jasmeen had bagged two gold and two silver medals. Besides numerous state-level gold medallists, the school has produced five gold medalists at the national level during the past six years, that too without government help.

An ex-jawan, now a senior laboratory attendant at the school, and a Punjabi master voluntarily impart training to the students. Interestingly, out of the 12 students, 11 are girls.

When Arshdeep Banga, a student of Class IX and son of Punjabi master Narinder Singh, expressed his desire to pursue a career in shooting, his father started taking him the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) Complex in Jalandhar for practice every day in 2014. Later, he informed DC PK Aggarwal, who got a basic facility at the local Shiwalik Club. Later, the village panchayat and others pooled in money to set up an AC hall on the school premises. School head Malkit Singh said more facilities would be provided.

CM congratulates stars

Congratulating Khushi and Jasmeen, the CM tweeted, “You’ve both done Punjab & India proud. Best of luck for the upcoming Championship!”