the goan I network
PANAJI
The Indian Olympic Association whose two-member team led by its Secretary General Rajeev Mehta arrived in Goa on Monday has conveyed to the Goa Olympic Association and the State administration that it will have to stick to the March-April schedule for the National Games or pay the Rs 10-crore fine for breaching its commitment. Mehta along with Mukesh Kumar, who heads the IOA’s technical committee for conduct of the Games, held discussions with the Goa Chief Secretary Parimal Rai and Sports Secretary Ashok Kumar.
The IOA team told the bureaucrats that tinkering the March 30-April 14 schedule at this late stage will throw national calendars and other schedules in the nearly 30 Olympic disciplines in complete disarray.
The IOA will also face insurmountable resistance from most, if not all, the National Sports Federations to agree to a change in schedule, the two IOA officials told the Goa side.
Officials of the Goa Olympic Association which is led by Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik and the Executive Director of Sports Authority of Goa, V M Prabhudesai were also part of the discussions.
Both the Chief Secretary and the Sports Secretary were unable to come up with any satisfactory solution to the schedule logjam other than repeating to the IOA team what has already been conveyed in writing earlier this month -- the unsuitability of the March-April schedule due to the likely clash of Lok Sabha election dates with the Games.
Although no formal decision from either side has emerged from the discussions held on Monday, a final call on the fate of the Games is expected to be taken when the IOA team meets with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Sports Minister Manohar (Babu) Ajgaonkar on Tuesday.
Mehta and Kumar, meanwhile, will also visit the various venues where infrastructural upgradation work on facilities which will host the competitions is still in progress to examine the host State’s preparedness.
Goa was slated to host the 36th edition of the National Games from March 30 to April 14 this year after the dates were re-scheduled multiple times over non-completion of infrastructure facilities and other logistical issues.
The IOA had warned GOA and the State that it will be fined up to Rs 10 crore as per existing rules if it failed to stick to the scheduled and fulfill its commitment.
Nonetheless, stopping short of seeking another deferment of the dates, Goa’s Sports Secretary wrote to the IOA earlier this month elaborating the difficulties that may crop up if the Election Commission of India declares a Lok Sabha election schedule which clashes with that of the National Games.
Kumar’s letter to the IOA also mentioned that March-April is also the academic year-end and the examination season. Thus, arranging the nearly 4000-plus strong volunteer force needed for the Games’ conduct would be an uphill task, it wrote to the IOA.
The National Games, organized by the IOA in association with the Olympic Association of the host State, is the country’s most prestigious sports meet. It involves competition between the top eight (plus the host State team if it does not figure among the top eight) State teams in some 30 Olympic disciplines.
Originally slated to be held in 2011 when the then Digambar Kamat government signed the MoU with the IOA, Goa got a breather of a few years as the previous edition had not yet taken place.
The 35th edition was finally held in Kerala in January-February 2015 and the first firm date for the Goa edition was fixed for 2017.
Since then, the schedule has been deferred twice and the last time the IOA re-scheduled it for March-April this year, it had warned of invoking the punitive clause which provides for imposing a fine of Rs 10 crore against the GOA.
