By IANS
New Delhi : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's failed bid to demolish a prestigious sports complex in Lucknow to make way for expanding a park invited scathing criticism Wednesday from several Olympians and sports persons, with many claiming the state's sports administration was rife with corruption and mismanagement.
Mayawati had made a midnight attempt Tuesday to demolish the Ambedkar Sports Complex in Lucknow's Gomti Nagar area to make way for her pet project, expansion of the Ambedkar Park.
Olympian and Arjuna Award-winning decathlete Vijay Singh Chauhan, who was a top sports administrator for several years, told IANS: "Those who cannot provide a sense of security to their athletes how can they keep the nation secure?"
Condemning the chief minister's move, former India volleyball captain Ranvir Singh said that she should have first provided an equally good facility before trying to demolish the existing infrastructure.
Syed Ali, hockey Olympian and Singh's contemporary who used to go for his morning workouts at the Lucknow stadium, questioned the rationale behind having expensive parks that the common man would not be bothered about.
The razing down of the stadium, built on 50-acre land, was stalled by the state high court which held an extraordinary sitting at 3.30 a.m. The court ordered the bulldozers to stay away from the sports complex till July 18.
Chauhan, a former Asian decathlon record holder who was also a director (sports) in Uttar Pradesh in 1990s, alleged that "certain influential people" had sought huge amount of money from him in exchange for favours.
"When I was working as a sports administrator some people asked me to pay up to Rs.500,000 for favours. I never paid the money and never got the favours. I don't compromise on my principles," Chauhan, also a former principal of the Lucknow Sports College, told IANS from Lucknow.
"No one is planning for the betterment of sports or sportspersons. There is widespread mismanagement in sports in UP."
Giving his own example, Chauhan said that as an administrator he had suffered at the hands of Mayawati in 1990s when she was chief minister. He claimed he was transferred and harassed before taking voluntary retirement towards the end of the decade.
"We sportspersons have no power to protest the demolition attempt because we have full faith in the two judges of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court (D.P. Singh and Pradeep Kant) who are looking into the case," said the man who was declared the Best Athlete of Asia from 1972-74.
Arjuna Award winner Ranvir Singh, now a director of sports in Uttar Pradesh Police, said: "It (razing) was completely wrong on her part. If she wanted to demolish the stadium, she should have first provided the thousands of athletes of the state an alternate stadium," he said.
Syed Ali questioned the rationale of Mayawati's dream to built expensive parks."Who has the time these days to go and admire parks? If you snatch away this stadium, where will the thousands of sportspersons who train there go?" he asked, pointing out the stadium's excellent location.
"They laid an astro turf far away from the populace in Varanasi. Today, no one goes to play there," he said.