After Madras HC order, voices raised in UP too
In all, 34 sports associations in Uttar Pradesh have bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen as their presidents. They include present and past top level bureaucrats, political heavy weights and big business men also.
However, after the Madras high court’s Tuesday order observing that only sportspersons and not politicians and others should be office-bearers of sports associations and federations, most of them may soon make an exit from the sporting bodies of UP.
In fact, taking a cue of the Madras HC order that upheld a single judge order in this connection, some people here have also “decided” to take the route of law to bring the same system in Uttar Pradesh too.
The court also observed that the positions of president, vicepresident and secretary of every sports association and organisation as well as important functionaries, including that of the state unit of the National Sports Federation (NSF), shall be held only by sportspersons and it must be ensured that a minimum of 75 per cent of the members of any sports body or organisation
or association or NSF shall be composed of eminent persons from the field of sports and that they shall have voting rights.
“The Madras HC order is a benchmark for all of us as such a system should also be here in place for the better functioning of the sports bodies. Most of them don’t care about the benefits of the sportspersons in reality,” said one Sanjay Kumar, a former volleyball player and chartered accountant by profession, on Thursday.
“This will surely fix the accountability of the people who hold such positions in sports organisations in Uttar Pradesh
towards sports and the sportspersons,” Kumar said.
In fact, there is no sports code in Uttar Pradesh to deny any of the state sports associations from electing bureaucrats, politicians or the businessmen in their executives on any posts, and the Uttar Pradesh Olympic Association has no hesitation in accepting this in the state also but it supports the move with some riders.
“The UPOA too wants this system in Uttar Pradesh too but we want that government or court should provide adequate financial support to run the sporting bodies without any hindrance,” UPOA’s secretary-general Anandeshwar
Pandey said on Thursday.
“Here in Uttar Pradesh, sports bodies get almost no financial support except teams’ kits, travelling expenses and fooding only, for the participation in national championships but to run the activities of the sports body, they need money through the year and that isn’t possible without having bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen in the body,” Pandey said.
However, Pandey, who also happens to be the treasurer of the Indian Olympic Association, said that even in the national sports federations, there have been plenty of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen as their key office-bearers.
“If the state associations start getting adequate funds to run their activities even through the CSR (corporate social responsibility) on a regular basis, they would automatically drop these politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen from their bodies,” he said, adding, “sports activities can’t be run without funds and that’s why we need them.”
UP’s director sport, RP Singh, who also happens to be the secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Hockey, said so far there was no such law to prevent state sports associations from having people of different walks of life in their bodies but the government had asked these sports bodies to run their activities in a proper manner at every level.
“All the state associations/federations have been asked to form their committees at least in 75% districts of the state to get government support, otherwise their affiliation with the sports directorate would not be reconsidered,” said Singh on Thursday.
“Many state associations have just 10-12 district units in the state and they want government support so this won’t be done any more,” he further said.