Vijay Goel, the Union Sports Minister, expressed concern about the non-organisation of National Games periodically, and asked N. Ramachandran, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president, to focus on its regular conduct.
In a meeting here with the Sports Minister on Wednesday, the IOA president said that he would visit Panjim and take up the matter with the Chief Secretary of Goa to ensure the timely conduct of the next edition of the National Games.
The Sports Minister also directed the IOA to focus on resolving the disputes in many national sports federations.
Interestingly, the IOA president had visited the Sports Minister, to seek the consent of the government for opening a regional office of the Olympic Council of Asia for the South Asian Region, and bid for multi-disciplinary sporting events like the Asian Games. The IOA president was particular in his suggestion that the Beach Asian Games would be a good option to host for 2019. The Minister agreed to consider the proposal.
It was also agreed that the IOA and the Sports Ministry should have regular meetings, about once every two months. The meeting was also attended by Injeti Srinivas, the Sports Secretary, and Inder Dhamija, the Joint Secretary of Sports.
