Rathore promises prompt fund distribution for 2020 Olympics

NEW DELHI: Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has promised “surgical” precision in distribution of funds to athletes preparing for the 2020 Olympic Games, asserting that centralisation of the process has made bureaucratic hurdles a thing of past.

“We have very clearly and very professionally divided our working between grassroots and elite sportspersons. The elite athletes are being looked after by a different set of professional people so that there is no bureaucracy,” Rathore said on the sidelines of a function to felicitate medal winners of the recently-concluded Asian

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We have clearly divided our working between grassroots and elite sportspersons. Elite athletes are being looked after by a different set of people. RAJYAVARDHAN RATHORE, Union sports minister

Games.

“We have just begun working on systems that can connect the athletes to the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) absolutely straight, transparent and quick,” he added.

TOPS was instituted in 2014 to fund athletes considered strong medal prospects for the Olympics. Currently, the athletes are picked by a committee, while the Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Director General (DG) is entrusted with the task of disbursing funds to those selected.

“We have now funds available for grassroots to elite. A lot of corporates are coming on board. They are putting in funds. Earlier, the funds were going in different directions but now we are combining and concentrating the flow,” he remarked.