While the Indian champions from the Rio Olympics are being awarded with Khel Ratnas and BMWs, several from the largest Indian contingent are far from being celebrated.
Members of the Indian women’s hockey team didn’t even have confirmed train tickets on their way back home.
Four hockey players from Odisha were made to sit on the floor of the train from Ranchi to Rourkela.
The four players — Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Lilima Minz, and Sunita Lakra —were on their way home on the Dhanbad-Alleppey Express, and were not allotted confirmed berths on the train.
Himanshu Sekher Behera, the sub-collector of their hometown Sundergarh, said:
Avid sports lovers from the girls’ town are enraged and said it was a great achievement that they qualified for the Games, even though they didn’t win a medal.
Pointing out that bureaucrats and ministers travelled to Rio in first-class, activist Brinda Adige told ANI.
Source: Deccan Chronicle
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)