By IANS
New Delhi : The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) will seek removal of Mani Shankar Aiyar as the Union Sports Minister, said a top official here Friday.
"The matter has been discussed in our executive committee meeting yesterday. The IOA is of the view that if the sports minister is here we can't do well in the Commonwealth Games," said Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, a member of the executive committee and president of the Cycling Federation of India (CFI).
The executive committee of the IOA met Thursday and decided that they will form a delegation that will soon meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to voice their grudge against Aiyar.
Dhindsa, who will be a part of the delegation, said that the Sport Authority of India (SAI) and the sports ministry are not cooperating with different sports bodies, including CFI.
"We are very sorry to say that the SAI and sports ministry are not cooperating with us. The CFI has imported three cycles for our Uttarakhand association and the import duty still hasn't been waived," said Dhindsa, who is also a member of parliament from Punjab.
"The director general of SAI assured that they will send the forms for waiving the duty in just three days but three months have passed and we have received nothing."
Dhinsa also said that six months back the CFI has asked the SAI for three coaches and till now nothing has been done.
Meanwhile, the cycling federation has signed a three-year agreement with sports management body Percept D'Mark as its executive marketing partner.
"CFI wants to promote the sport seriously and this deal will help us to market the sport in a better way," said Dhindsa.