Telangana Fencing Association (TFA) is trapped in serious allegations of malpractices in its functioning and more so in the selection procedures it has adopted recently to pick the State teams for the Nationals.
In a fresh broadside against the TFA general secretary Dhankishan Bhandari, Hyderabad unit president Lale Sandeep Kumar says that the former was conducting “competitions in an undemocratic manner, resorting to financial irregularities and worse not conducting the selections in the prescribed procedure to give genuine talent a real chance to showcase its skills.”
Mr. Sandeep Kumar expressed dismay at the “audacity of the TFA official in responding to the Sports Authority of Telangana State (SATS) that he was not affiliated to it and hence not answerable to their queries on some crucial subjects.”
“Recently, the TFA conducted selections at Hanuman Vyayamshala (Ramkote) for the Sub-junior and the Cadet Nationals. Ironically, when the Telangana Sports School athletes came to participate, they were not allowed. This is proof of his dictatorial attitude given the fact that the Sports School is run by the Telangana Government at Hakimpet,” he pointed out.
Left with no option, the aggrieved students even lodged a police complaint against the TFA official. But he seems to be undeterred as he went ahead with the selections for the Senior and the Youth Nationals in the same manner, paying scant respect to the norms, Mr. Sandeep pointed out.
Interestingly, even the SATS had addressed a letter to the Government to keep the general secretary of the TFA under blacklist to stop further sports activities in Telangana State. “We have received many complaints from the parents against the irrational, negligent and arrogant attitude and improper selection of the State teams by the TFA causing damage to the up-and-coming and talented fencers in the State,” the letter stated.
Olympic Association of Telangana, affiliated to IOA, president K. Ranga Rao also wrote to the Fencing Federation of India secretary-general Rajender Singh Rana listing out the irregularities in the functioning of the State body and suggested that the latter visit Hyderabad to get a first-hand account of what exactly was happening at the ground-level.
On his part, Mr. Bhandari denied all allegations and felt it was unfortunate that when he has been promoting the sport over the years without any support he had to face these kind of charges. “My conscience is clear,” he asserted.
