Road of honour: In Dhyan Chand’s name, 19 UP sportspersons to get a home link

Hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand’s legacy will live on in the form of roads to the homes of 19 eminent national and international sportspersons from Uttar Pradesh.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday launched a scheme to this effect on the eve of National Sports Day, the birth anniversary of the legendary Olympian. It is known as ‘Major Dhyan Chand Vijay Path’ scheme.

In a virtual ceremony, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who holds the public works department portfolio, laid the foundation stone for 19 roads to the homes of an equal number of UP sportspersons on Friday.

These 19 sportspersons are Pawan Kumar Sharma and Ashish Gautam (fencing), Isha Dhangar (judo), Jitu Gola (fencing), Pawan Kumar (cricket), Ravi Kumar (shooting), Varun Pahelwan (wrestling), Komal Sharma and Tanya Chaudhary (athletics), Tanu Rathi (volleyball), Akansha Bansal (shooting), Abhishek Singh (kabaddi), RP Singh (hockey), Kavita Yadav (cross-country running), Vaidehi Mishra (fencing), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (cricket), Satish Kumar (boxing), Shanti Swaroop (rowing) and Chavi Tomar (volleyball).

“By initiating the Major Dhyanchand Vijay Path scheme, the state government is paying tribute to hockey wizard Major Dhyanchand and encouraging sports and UP sportspersons. These sportspersons have brought glory for the state at the national/international level,” said Maurya soon after the e-foundation stone laying ceremony for the 19 roads at a function at PWD auditorium in Lucknow on Friday.

He said the new roads would have high-quality signage with name of the respective sportspersons.

A state government press statement said Major Dhyanchand was born in Prayagraj (UP) on August 29, 1905 and he had played a pivotal role in making India win Olympic gold medals in hockey. He was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1956.

ROAD TO BE NAMED AFTER CHETAN CHAUHAN

Maurya said that a road in the state would be named after the late UP cabinet minister and former Indian Test cricketer Chetan Chauhan.

The deputy CM also said the state government would later build roads to the houses of gold medal winners at the state level games.

The public works department already is running a scheme wherein it builds roads named after former President the late APJ Abdul Kalam to the homes of class 10 and class 12 toppers. It would soon launch a scheme for making roads and Vijay Dwar (gateways) in the name of martyrs.