P U Chithra to be appointed senior clerk in Railways
PALAKKAD: Athlete P U Chithra from Mundur was handed over the offer of appointment as a senior clerk under Palakkad division of the Railways by Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Pratap Singh Shami, here, on Monday.
Additional DRM D Sai Baba and senior divisional electrical engineer (Traction and Distribution) S Jaikrishnan were present. Chithra’s coach N S Sijin of Mundur High School told Express she would leave for Bhuvaneswar to participate in the National Open Athletics Championship on Tuesday. She will represent the Railways in the 1,500-m race on Wednesday. Sijin said the state government had also offered her a job when the then Sports Minister A C Moideen had visited her home in Mundur in July 2017. However, the reshuffle of the portfolios resulted in some delay. Since the job offer of the Railways was received first, we decided to join it, he said. However, if there is a better offer from the state government, we are open to it also, he said.
Daughter of agricultural labourers, Unnikrishnan and Vasantha Kumari, the track and field athlete had won many state, national and international school meet gold medals, in middle and long-distance track events. In 2017, despite winning gold in the Asian Athletics Championship, she was excluded from the World Athletics Championship held in London which had created a controversy.