Haryana, two other states banned by wrestling body
NEW DELHI: The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has suspended three major state units Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka citing “misgovernance”. The decision was taken at WFI’S executive committee meeting on Thursday headed by its president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
A WFI official said it will soon name ad hoc committees to run the state bodies and to hold fresh elections. “We have been receiving several complaints from wrestlers and local bodies of these three state units over how poorly they are run. They did not care about the welfare of wrestlers. The matter was taken up at the EC meeting and it was decided to suspend all three associations and have elections at the earliest,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
He said office-bearers in these states had been in their posts for a long time and had a lackadaisical approach to their responsibilities. “None of these state units were interested in running the administration. They were just occupying the posts.”
WFI has increased the number of domestic competitions from last year, holding nationals across age groups as well as ranking tournaments. The official said Haryana, Karnataka and Maharashtra never showed interest in hosting any tournament.
Officials unresponsive
Haryana is the bastion of wrestling in India but its officials have been sitting on many important issues, the official said. “They have not acted on age-fraud cases. There are many cases of indiscipline but the association is not strong enough to take action. Recently at the national ranking event in Panchkula there was no support from the Haryana state. There was fracas at the venue but the Haryana association did not take any action,” the WFI official said.
Maharashtra had pitched for the U-15 national but despite reminders was unable to host it. “The district associations said they were interested in hosting the event but the state body sat on it saying it can’t arrange funds. It was held in Shirdi with the help of the local body there. Similarly, Haryana last hosted a tournament almost a decade ago when a small state like Jharkhand has held five events in recent times.”