Sudha chasing UP job for the last three years
On Friday, India’s ace athlete Sudha Singh won the women’s 3000m steeplechase gold at the Asian Athletics Championship in Bhubaneswar, but her search for a job in her home state Uttar Pradesh continues.
Sudha, who also had a silver medal each at the
2009, 2011 and 2013 editions of the Asian Championships, is desperate for a job in the state, but it seems no one in the Uttar Pradesh Sports Directorate is interested in helping her out.
“The government order to give Class 1 jobs to medal winners like me was issued in 2014 and since January 2015, I am running from pillar to post for a job here. But every time the people concerned say that the process is on,” Sudha told HT on Monday.
The 31-year-old Sudha, who hails from Rae Bareli, clocked 9:59.47 seconds at the Asian Championships last week, and booked a place in the next month’s World Championships in London.
“I will apprise chief minister Yogi Adityanath on how reluctant people are in his government in giving me a job. I will also let Prime Minister Narendra Modi know about my plea for a job after coming back from the World Championships,” said Sudha, who has applied for the post of a regional sports officer in UP.
“World Championships is a big challenge for me. I want to do well there and I want to break the national record,” said Sudha, who has been serving the Central Railways at Mumbai as chief ticket inspector. “Everybody is aware of my achievements, and if anyone has doubts, he can compare my achievements with others. They should reject my claim, if I am inferior to others,” said Sudha, who had won the Asian Games gold in 2014 at Guangzhou.
“I am holding the national record for the last seven years, and why shouldn’t I think for a job in my own state. I had offers in SAI and other places too, but I always wanted to work for my own state,” said Sudha, who has also recently let sports minister Chetan Chauhan know about her problem. “Since December I am at the national camp and I have not visited my ailing aunt and grandmother at home. If I had a job in the state, I could have been with my family,” she said.