Sports council bill passed amid protests

LEADER OF OPPOSITION ABHAY CHAUTALA SAYS PROPOSED COUNCILS WILL NEITHER DO GOOD TO SPORTS NOR SPORTSPERSONS

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Vidhan Sabha on Monday passed the Haryana Sports Council Bill, 2016, to constitute statutory sports councils at state, district and block levels after over two-hour surcharged discussion between treasury benches and opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLAs.

The Bill which was moved by sports minister Anil Vij was opposed by leader of Opposition Abhay Chautala who held that the councils would not only be an official body, but also would do good neither for sports nor sportspersons.

As the discussion got intense speaker Kanwar Pal extended the time of House five times till 8.30 pm.

Abhay, who also formerly headed Indian Olympics Association (IOA), insisted that the council had as its members mainly bureaucrats who either did not know the requirements for the games or the players or their functioning would hit because of the transfers.

However, Vij held that these councils would be constituted to provide for the promotion of sports, games, yoga and physical fitness. These councils would be responsible for coaching, competitions and other sports-related activities.

Even as Abhay and other INLD MLAs referred to the medals in Olympics, Vij said the state government aimed at increasing the awareness among the people regarding benefits of physical activity and the practice of sports, besides honing talents of the sportspersons. On the objection that there was not even single expert on sports injuries in the state, Vij informed the House that the state government’s talks were on with Australia to set up a sports injuries centre in Haryana.

Vij DISMISSES CHARGES OVER RIO TRIP

The discussion again got surcharged when Abhay questioned Vij what did the state gain out of his and other officials’ trip to Rio. Irked by the question, Vij countered him by saying that he and his team had gained a lot unlike the delegations of previous governments.

Scoffing at the reports that he had not seen games there and had gone to beach and other places, he said he not only saw all the games of which he had tickets and met all the players of the country.

He said that he had prepared a 80-page report which would be submitted to the chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar soon.