The senior Vice-President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), Vijay Kumar Malhotra, on Wednesday, slammed the Union Sports Minister, M. S. Gill, and his ministry for what, in his opinion, were attempts to “take over sports bodies”.
“I have a piece of advice for Sports Minister M. S. Gill. He should stop day dreaming of taking over the sports bodies and concentrate on the completion of Commonwealth Games infrastructure projects on time,” he told a media conference on Wednesday.
Pointing out the recent attempts of the Government to control National Sports Federations (NSFs) through an “annual recognition” procedure, Malhotra, who is also the president of the General Association of NSFs, said that it was not up to the Government to “recognise” the federations. “It is up to the International Federations or the IOA,” he said.
Transparency
He agreed that there should be transparency in the financial management of the NSFs and the Government had every right to seek the audited accounts of the federations and details of the expenses to account for government grants.
Malhotra, who is also the president of the Archery Association of India (AAI), said that the popular perception about government giving large amount of funds to NSFs was rather misleading since no direct funding was involved except for contributing towards the salary of the assistant secretary of a federation.
The passage cost for sending teams abroad was directly paid to the government travel agency, training expenses and coaches’ salaries were borne by the Sports Authority of India (SA), grants for holding National competitions were paid to hosting associations and other expenses for participation in international competitions were reimbursed on production of actual bills.
He said without audited accounts being submitted government was in any case not going to support the NSFs. He said it was unfortunate the Government had approached a court to appoint a Returning Officer to a federation’s elections.
Malhotra reminded the Government the recent plight of Kuwait Olympic Committee that had been suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because of government interference.
Asked about the recent selection controversy in shooting, Malhotra said: “Government can’t select teams. Then it will be like what has happened with Padma awards.”
He said a majority of the key disciplines were having measurable events and selections could not be manipulated.
He said the Sports Minister was right in pointing out that all the stadia and other infrastructure should have been in place by 2007. “But who is responsible for the delay?” He said all the projects were being handled by Central and State governments and their agencies. Malhotra welcomed the incentives being paid to hockey players, but said that the others should also be considered for such payments.
