In the light of the positive dope tests of eight athletes, the Union Sports Ministry on Thursday appointed Justice Mukul Mudgal, retired Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, as a one-member committee to enquire into all aspects of the issues relating to prevalence of doping.
Justice Mudgal will determine the facts and circumstances leading to large scale recent incidents of alleged doping in the athletics discipline and examine the reasons and modus operandi involved, including availability of the prohibited substances in and around training camps/competitions.
The committee will also be asked to enquire into the role of agencies involved, if any, and suggest measures to improve the protocols of dope testing and its integrity and promptness so that such lapses, if any, do not happen in future.
Time frame of six weeks
Justice Mudgal has been requested to submit his report within six weeks. According to the ministry circular, he will be assisted by V. Jayaraman, Senior Project Manager, National Anti Doping Agency.
Keeping its word on the action to be taken against the guilty in the doping scandal, after terminating the services of Ukrainian coach Yuriy Ogrodnik and suspending R.S. Sidhu, the Sports Authority of India issued a show cause notice to coach Ramesh Nagapuri, who was also associated with the women's 400m team.
According to SAI Director-General Desh Deepak Verma, steps will be taken to form a regulatory body to monitor the athletes' performance graph.
The authorities are aiming to arrest the possible use of performance enhancing drugs by some athletes.
Keywords: doping scandal
I am surprised to read the hue and cry of the Sports Minister and in some of the Press release about the doping news of the Indian Athletes. But I am surprised that none of these bodies are aware of the facts that the National Anti Doping Laboratory of India is not accredited by the WADA. So how the whole media and even the Sports Minister has taken the result of this non accredited National Anti Doping Laboratory of India, as it is authentic. This humiliates the hard working athletes and their coaches.
This entire fiasco is really embarassing. First of all India really is lagging behind in every other sport except cricket. Just when we all began to think that India has finally stepped up on the world stage of atheletics and other sports, this happened. A good move by the government to set up an independent panel which should bring out the facts bare and ensure that such instances are not repeated in the future. With the Olympics around the corner the other athletes will do well to take care of themselves.
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