The Sports Ministry has finally allowed India’s shooting coach Ronak Pandit to travel with the contingent for the Commonwealth Games after initially dropping his name from the approved list.
Pandit, who is the husband and coach of India’s pistol shooter Heena Sidhu, was initially barred from travelling with his wife to Gold Coast. The National Rifle Association of India and Sidhu had slammed the move.
Pandit was among 21 people whose names were dropped from the list of non-athletes who were allowed to travel to the Games. Among those dropped from the Indian Olympic Association’s list included PV Sindhu’s mother Vijaya Pusarla, and Saina Nehwal’s father Harvir Singh.
IOA president Narinder Batra had questioned the Sports Ministry for raising “unnecessary issues” about the family members of Commonwealth Games-bound athletes travelling with them, asking it to apply the same standards of probity for its own bureaucrats.
Pandit, a former India shooter, will now be travelling to the Games on the Indian government’s cost, like other technical specialists, as the coach-cum-manager of the shooting team. Pandit is also the High Performance Director of the Indian pistol and rifle team.
With inputs from PTI