By IANS,
New Delhi : Indian Olympic Association (IOA) vice-president Vijay Kumar Malhotra Wednesday blamed Union Sports minister Manohar Singh Gill for all the ills of Indian sport and warned him of serious consequences if he is planning to take over the national sports federations.
Malhotra, who is also the president of the General Association of National Sports Federations (GANSF), took umbrage at the growing interference by the sports ministry in the affairs of the sports bodies and vowed to resist any move by it to either dilute their autonomy or attempt a take-over.
“Of late, it has been noticed that there is undue meddling by the officialdom in the affairs of sports bodies at the behest of the ministry. It seems that a sinister plan is being hatched to take over sports bodies in the garb of promoting the Commonwealth Games,” he said.
Malhotra wondered whether Gill was aware before shooting off the guidelines to the national sports federations that they had been fulfilling these so-called dos and don’ts for years to be eligible for government grants.
He sought to explode the myth that the sports federations were getting huge funds to run sports, saying much of these grants was notional and in reality only government book adjustments.
“The sports ministry shows grants for each federation under a lot of heads, but the money actually goes from government to the agencies it has hired to help federations. For instance, travel passage paid to sportspersons for taking part in international events goes directly to Balmer Lawrie, which books the air tickets, but the amount is shown in the grants to the federation. Likewise, the payment made for board and lodging at international events overseas goes directly to the organisers, but it is credited as grant to the federation,” he said.
Malhotra also pointed out that the sports ministry’s grants to federations include the expenses the Sports Authority of India (SAI) incurs in conducting various training camps.
“How can you call this expenditure as grant to a federation? The only grant a federation gets is for conducting junior events and the salary of an assistant secretary attached to a federation,” he said.