Mumbai: If everything falls into place, the National Sports Development Code would be a reality soon. Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Vijay Goel promises to table the bill in the coming monsoon session of the Parliament in July. The minister has warned that if the national federations do not abide by it then they should not expect any favour from the government. The minister also informs that he has had discussions with stakeholders to include sports in the Concurrent List. After getting the required feedback, the matter will be sent to the cabinet for approval.
To bring changes in the current code, he says, “The Sports Code if implemented in its present form, is more than enough. Ninety per cent of the federations are following it and others will have to fall in line. We have resolved the disputes in the Associations of karate, boxing, tennis and now we have set sights on archery and basketball. These will also be resolved soon.”
“We want all Federations to follow the Sports Code and if they cannot, they should not expect anything from us. We work like Patrons. To fix their accountability, we have constituted a Sports Code review committee,” Goel says. PTI reports, “The age and tenure of the office-bearers and eligibility of voters in the elections of the Federations are two major issues addressed by the Sports Code.”
On sports being added to the Concurrent List, Goels says the government has set up a committee to which will present its report shortly. “I had a meeting with the Dronacharya awardees, the Arjuna awardees, Olympic medallists. Then we had a (state) Sports Ministers’ meeting, PSUs meeting, Federations’ meeting and decided that sport will be taken to concurrent list. The status is that we are awaiting comments from all stakeholders. As soon we get it, it will be sent to the Union Cabinet,” he says.
The eligibility of the voters in this election is the main hurdle. The projected code calls for one state one vote for all the national sports federations. But a few states have may have more than one vote.
Recently, the Lodha Committee has ruled that no minister or serving bureaucrat would be allowed to hold office in the BCCI. And this rule will be applicable in other sports as well.
(With inputs from PTI)