Protests against closure of Armoury ground for general public

Jamshedpur : Congress MLA Banna Gupta protested against the closure of Northern Town based Armoury ground for general public. He rued that the ground was used by all section of society but the sports department of Tata Steel has closed its doors for commoners.

Gupta today barged inside the gates of the ground by forcing private security guards to open the locks. The Jamshedpur West legislator also played soccer for a while along with his supporters.

The Tata Steel-owned Armoury grounds is at present being used by the Tata Football Academy (TFA) for its under-10 and under12 training programme. The programme is being conducted to tap young tal- ent in the field of football. Entry of outsiders has been banned. This has led to the local sports enthusiasts protest the move.

Banna said that he will make sure that the Armoury grounds remains open for the general public. He expressed concern that with very few grounds left for the people to spend their leisure time closure of this ground will dishearten sports enthusiasts and morning walkers. According to him, people have been using the grounds for several years and suddenly stopping the entry can never be justified.

Meanwhile, Tata Steel sports department officials noted that they would personally visit the place and will come up with amicable solution.

“The ground enjoys a historic legacy but it’s really sad that the gates have been closed for people.As there are few playgrounds left due to mushrooming of buildings all around the city, the children and boys used to come here and play various games regularly. It is a very anti-public step of company to close gates,” said a sports enthusiast.