The arbitration tribunal, set up to look into the claims of two warring groups of the Andhra Pradesh Olympic Association (APOA), as per the directive of Andhra Pradesh High Court, passed an award in favour of Guntur Member of Parliament Galla Jayadev’s association, thus bringing to an end, the three-year-old issue, according to respondent association member R.K. Purushotham here on Wednesday.
Releasing the copy of the award to the mediapersons, he said the tribunal would soon hand over the award to the AP High Court and later to the Indian Olympic Association.
“We appeared more than six times in front of the Tribunal and the rival group headed by Member of Parliament C.M. Ramesh was present thrice. Both the groups had put forward their views, counter-views and documents in front of the three-judge panel headed by Justice K. Sreedhar Rao to act upon. If they (the C.M. Ramesh Group) had any objection over the functioning of the tribunal they ought to have objected before 21 days of the formation of the tribunal,” Mr Purushotham said.
He said the award was signed and pronounced on December 24.
Goa National Games
He said soon the Andhra Pradesh Olympic Association under the leadership of Mr. Jayadev would spearhead the development of sports and games in Andhra Pradesh by preparing the teams for the Goa National Games in 2018.
“We are also signing an MoU to stage the Asia Beach Games in Visakhapatnam and other coastal areas in 2019.”
Senior member K. Pattabhi Ram said nearly 80% of the sports associations were affiliated to their group and the Tribunal took that fact into consideration before passing the award.
