*No financial assistance needed from now on: IOA* Special Correspondent
------------------------------ * The IOA has argued that it received very little direct funding from the Government “This is the first step towards freedom,” an IOA official said * ------------------------------ NEW DELHI: In a far-reaching decision that could have a great impact on Olympic sports in the country, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has conveyed to the Union Sports Ministry that it was no longer interested in receiving any financial assistance from the Government. “As the autonomy of the National Olympic Committee of India…is supreme, the Indian Olympic Association would like to desist from receiving any further financial support from the Government of India from financial year 2010-11,” wrote IOA Seceretary-General Randhir Singh to the Sports Ministry. The letter, dated March 31, was released to the media on Monday. Randhir Singh thanked the Government for the financial support it had “provided to the Indian team till now,” in his letter addressed to Mrs Sindhushree Khullar, Secretary, Sports, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The top IOA officials were not available to elaborate on the path-breaking step they had mooted to apparently counter various moves the Sports Ministry had made in recent months to exercise more control over the National sports bodies. Annual recognition scheme The Sports Ministry had recently brought in an “annual recognition” scheme by which recognised National Sports Federations (NSFs) were asked to furnish various details in order to receive funding from the Government. The Government's “interference” with elections to the federations and selection procedures, the notification bringing the NSFs under the purview of RTI and the recent case of a shooting team being withdrawn from an Asian championship on Government orders were being considered by the IOA and the NSFs as steps towards an eventual “take-over” of the federations. “This is the first step towards freedom,” said an IOA official, who preferred to remain anonymous, on the IOA move to turn down Government funding. “More bodies will now attempt to unshackle themselves from Government funding,” he added. “We never wanted to create an issue over anything the past few months because our main concern was the Commonwealth Games. However, things have gone from bad to worse. It seems the Government is not interested in a friendly relationship,” said the official. High Court order A Delhi High Court order had brought the IOA and the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee under the purview of the RTI Act, mainly on the argument that they receiving large Government funding. The Government recently followed up that order with a notification bringing all NSFs that received Rs 10 lakhs or more as assistance under the RTI Act. It ruled that the NSFs were to be considered as public authority. The IOA has argued that it received very little direct funding from the Government while the NSFs have stated that much of the assistance was being given directly by the Government to its agencies like the Sports Authority of India and Balmer and Lawrie (travel agency) for holding training camps and sending teams abroad. Anilkumar BVN
