Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Namal Rajapaksa has granted approval for the construction of three new shooting ranges in an attempt to popularise the sport among the schools in the country.
The Minister responded swiftly to the need when he met the high-ranking officials of the National Shooting Sports Federation (NSSF) at the Sports Ministry in Colombo.
As an initial step to support the plan, the Sports Minister approved the construction of one airgun range per District in order to facilitate over 7,500 school shooters in the country.
The ultimate target will be to have shooting ranges in all 25 Districts of Sri Lanka, which would be accessible not only to the students but also to the other shooting community in general and for the public for leisure shooting. The Sports Minister has also identified and approved three locations as shooting ranges to be completed and the task was handed over to the President and Secretary of the NSSF to be accomplished by December 31.
Meanwhile, President of the NSSF, Shirantha Peiris said that this has been the first time, that a Sports Minister had given a firm decision to move ahead without any interruptions.
“I am very happy that these children can now have a location to train and shooting would improve their focus in studies as well as in their general discipline,” NSSF President Peiris told the Daily News yesterday. This programme, coordinated with the Ministry of Education is also extended to train school teachers as coaches who will overlook the training of their students.
In fact, the President and Secretary of the NSSF have already had discussions with Daya Bandara, Director of Education and Sports, Ministry of Education to execute this programme.
