As a mark of respect to women power, the shooting range at the Noida stadium will be named after “Shooter Dadi” Chandro Tomar, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday. Jewar’s BJP MLA Dhirendra Singh wrote to the chief minister on Monday with a request that the recently-built shooting range in Noida’s Sector 21 be named after Tomar, who died on April 30 due to Covid-19.
Hailing from Baghpat in western Uttar Pradesh, Tomar was above 60 years of age when she picked up the gun for the first time, but went on to win many national competitions for veterans, her feats inspiring the award-winning Bollywood movie, “Saand ki Aankh”. The 89-year-old from Johri village in Bagpat district of western Uttar Pradesh had won more than 30 national championships. She died on April 30 of Covid-related complications. The move comes a day after a demand had been raised by Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh. He had written to the CM urging him to name the shooting range after Tomar. Adityanath announced on Twitter that the shooting range would now be named after Tomar, an eminent shooter who symbolised “vitality, will power and women empowerment”. “Naming the shooting range after Chandro Tomar is a tribute to women power, in line with the Mission Shakti programme of the Uttar Pradesh government,” he tweeted in Hindi.
In his letter to the chief minister, Singh had highlighted how Tomar, who hailed from Baghpat’s Johri village, broke the barriers of orthodoxy to make the state and the country proud.
