IOA outrightly discards revised Sports policy

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the National Sports Federations (NSF) unanimously and outrightly rejected the revised draft of National Sports Policy here on Monday, as the revised draft still keeps hold of the contentious issue of regulatory body and the Union Sports Ministry had failed to tackle their concerns despite repeated suggestions.

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The IOA had a three-hour long meeting between the officials of the Sports Ministry and 40 sports federations over the revised draft but issue remains the same, as IOA won’t compromise with their autonomous status at all. The IOA reiterated its disagreement over sports being brought under the Concurrent List.

“The absence of sports minister for such an important meeting is really disheartening,” said IOA President Kalmadi after the meeting.

“The revised draft Sports Policy still retains the contentious issue of regulatory body and we are totally opposed to that policy in any form,” added Kalmadi.

"We are an autonomous body so we can’t accept this draft. We have given them detailed note of what are the clauses that needs to be altered," Kalmadi claimed.

“This was the first meeting where the IOA, sports federations and the ministry were to discuss the draft Sports Policy across the table, but the minister decided to stay away,” said Kalmadi.

The sports policy issue is getting murkier day by day since the IOA and the sports federations had boycotted the earlier two meetings called by the Sports Minister, while on Monday it was the third meeting, but this time Aiyar didn’t turn up.

However, Kalmadi also pointed to form a Working Group comprising all concerned parties to settle out the concerned issues.

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is very upset with the approach of the Indian government and in consequence we could lose the Commonwealth Games,” Kalmadi said.

In addition, the IOA and all the national sports federations are particularly annoyed with the ministry’s stance for holding back their funds for preparations of forthcoming Beijing Games.

“If our sportspersons do badly in Beijing, the Government will remain responsible for it,” Kalmadi stated.