Six members of the Indian para taking pictures contingent, together with double Paralympic medallist Singharaj Adhana, on June 4 didn’t journey to Chateauroux, France for the World Shooting Para Sport World Cup after they have been denied visas, regardless of the intervention of the Indian Government.
The matter got here to gentle after Tokyo Paralympic Games gold medallist shooter Avani Lekhara took to twitter, in search of assist following denial of visa to her escort and mom Shewata Jewaria and coach Rakesh Manpat.
But speaking to PTI from the airport, chief nationwide coach and chairman of Indian Para Shooting Jai Prakash Nautiyal stated Lekhara and her coach Manpat’s visas have been cleared.
“Avani and her coach’s visas were granted but her escort, who is also her mother didn’t get her visa,” Nautiyal stated.
“Besides, three para shooters — Singharaj, Rahul Jhakhar and Deepinder Singh [all para pistol shooters] and two coaches Subhas Rana [national coach] and Vivek Saini [assistant coach] did not get their visas.
“The French embassy didn’t mention any reason, simply said there is a huge surge for visas. We applied for our visas on April 23 and were sure of getting all cleared. The Ministry of External Affairs [MEA] also intervened and were helping us but despite that visas of six members were rejected,” he added.
The occasion to be held from June 4 to 13 is of significance for Indian para shooters as Paris Paralympics quota locations have been on provide there.
“We are now going with a 22-member contingent, which includes 14 shooters. We were quite confident of getting visas of all members cleared since Paris will be the host for the next Paralympics and there are 18 2024 Paralympics quota places on offer in the tournament,” Nautiyal stated.
Replying to Avani’s tweet, the Sports Authority of India termed the incident as unlucky.
“It is unfortunate that all the visas of the Indian Para Shooting Contingent going to France have not been approved. All efforts were made by MYAS and MEA to secure all visas but unfortunately this time the efforts did not materialise,” SAI tweeted.
Source: www.thehindu.com
