The upcoming sports complex in Dhanbad, under construction for the past eight years next to the airstrip, has been named after former Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

A big board declaring the new name was installed by the Dhanbad Municipal corporation (DMC) on Sunday, but with no formal function.

A large poster was also pasted on a wall, featuring photos of Dhanbad MP Pashupati Nath Singh, MLA Raj Sinha, and Mayor Chandrasekhar Agarwal.

Barring Andila Devi, councillor of ward No. 21, under which the stadium is coming up, no other leader of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party ( BJP) and DMC official was present during the naming function.

Andila Devi said , “The board was installed at the insistence of the residents of Thakur Kulhi locality who had been demanding that the stadium be named after the late Prime Minister. People had handed over an application to me. It was forwarded by me to the mayor and on his clearance, the board was installed.”

On being contacted, mayor Chandrasekhar Agarwal said, “It’s people’s will to name the stadium after the great leader. We just did what people wanted us to do.” He added that the DMC would forward the “demand of the people” to the sports department, the parent department of the stadium, to take “the final decision” on the naming.

Agarwal said, “Since no one earlier made any claim, I hope the sports department takes the necessary action in naming it as Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee stadium.” The Dhanbad MP and MLA were not available for comments.

The sports complex, not finished after even eight years, hit the headlines last December, when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat addressed an open public meeting at the sports complex.

Chief minister Raghubar Das, who was present at the programme, had announced ₹4.3 crore for the completion of this stadium. Until now, ₹4 crore has been spent on construction of the existing structure.

First Published: Jan 28, 2019 09:10 IST