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Sports : General
By Our Special Correspondent
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the AICS Chairman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said that the second meeting of the revived council had taken serious note of the recent positive cases that were reported from the National Games in Hyderabad. Mr. Malhotra said that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the Union Government, AICS and the federations had to take concerted action against the doping menace. Departmental action against coaches involved and action by the employers against the athletes found positive were some of the steps suggested at Thursday's meeting. The proposed National anti-doping organisation would require an act of Parliament but if necessary the Government could enact an ordinance to approve the functioning of an interim body, Mr. Malhotra said. Such an organisation had now become necessary following the Copenhagen conference that finalised a uniform anti-doping code last month. (Surprisingly, India, even though it was represented at Cophenhagen, was not among the signatories to the declaration. It has, however, pledged to sign it at a later date. The U.S., Russia, Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada and South Africa are among the 50-odd governments that have already signed the declaration.) When asked what had happened to the committee appointed by the Government to look into the entire doping issue following the Sunita Rani positive at the Busan Asian Games, Mr. Malhotra said that the AICS had sought the report from the Union Sports Ministry. The panel, under a retired secretary of the ministry, was given three months time to submit a report. More than four months have passed since the panel was set up. Mr. Malhotra and the Director-General of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Shekhar Dutt, insisted that the SAI laboratory, where the dope tests were being conducted, though not accredited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was competent and had the necessary equipment to carry out the tests. Mr. Malhotra as well as several members of the AICS felt that the IOA and the federations were competent to take action against erring athletes, based on the SAI lab reports, without the matter being referred to international bodies. Asked why then action had not been taken with regard to a majority of the dope positives reported from the National Games in Punjab in 2001, Mr. Malhotra said that he would look into it. There was no proper explanation as to why only just over 10 per cent of the total number of positives reported at the SAI lab had been sanctioned so far during a period of more than 10 years. Moving away from the topic of doping that dominated the press briefing, Mr. Malhotra talked about the need to bring in uniformity in diet allowances for National campers. It was decided that a uniform allowance should be made available to all the campers instead of the present system of different rates. An increase in allowance was recommended without fixing an upper limit. Asked whether food supplements being imported by the Government would also be uniformally distributed among all the sportspersons in various disciplines, Mr. Malhotra said he was not aware that supplements were being imported. It was noted that States had not utilised the funds earmarked by the Centre for infrastructural facilities on a 50-50 basis. Now there is a proposal to provide hundred per cent funding for such projects approved by the Centre. A separate fund to help former sportspersons in distress was mooted. The AICS also sought more tax exemptions for specific corporate programmes that aimed at rural sports development and such other programmes. It was also suggested that the Centre should set up a research centre for sports where the all the related aspects of sports development could be studied and evaluated.
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