Sports Development draft bill recommends Sports Ombudsman

14 June 2011 New Delhi:Nksagar-Sagar Media Inc: Indian Olympic Association and National Sports Federations on Monday led delegation headed by acting IOA president VK Malhotra met Prime Minister Dr Man Mohan asked him to intervene in scrapping the "draconian" National Sports Development Bill proposed by the sports ministry. Dr Singh was shown the letter from the IOC, threatening the IOA with suspension if their autonomy is infringed.

VK Malhotra said sports is a state subject and now the Central government wants to have full control over sports by introducing this bill."Sports has always been a state subject, we don't want the government to have total control over sports. The bill is in violation of the Olympic Charter and India could be banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for government interference. Kuwait was also banned by the IOC for government interference," "We told the prime minister that this is a draconian bill and that we have rejected the bill outright. Dr. Singh said he doesn't know much about this bill and will ask the sports ministry to submit a detailed report," said VK Malhotra.

Officials accompanying told the prime minister that they are fine with Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) auditing the accounts of sports organisations and the provision for free and fair elections.

Later on Tuesday FICCI called an Interactive Session on Draft Sports (Development) Bill 14th June, 2011 Federation House, New Delhi at FICCI, Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi- 110001.Interactive Session on Draft Sports devlopment bill was chaired by Mr RK Anand,RS MP Legal experts of IOA, attended by various members of national federation,sports celebrities Arjun Vajpe,Sunita Godra,IOA members and Nksagar representing the Newspapers Editor's Society.Two hours deliberation touched varied dimensions of proposed bill ranging from criticism being draconian,state of affairs of national sports federations,sports authorities,Sports ministry and later culminated into unanimously resolving in the making of the draft of bill with best of inputs to strengthen sports across the country.FICCI thus to take up the lead in giving public hearing of the bill and thus submitting to the government their proposal for draft of National sports development bill.Reacting to the proposed draft most of the members talked of widening the scope of draft to be more comprehensive with accountability and transparency in all subjects of sports.
RK Aanand stressed that for sorting and mitigating dispute in commercial sports, the proposed Sports Development Bill must have Sports Ombudsman for sports disputes at various levels.

(PTI) The proposed National Sports Development Bill (NSDB) has regulations which might strengthen the stranglehold of the government and threaten the independence of National Sports Federations (NSF) and Indian Olympic Association (IOA), according to a FICCI survey.

As per the survey by the industry body, the preliminary draft of the bill falls far short of the expectations of NSFs and professionals as it does little to address the problems dogging the overall development of sports.

The survey, conducted in the north, central and south campus colleges of Delhi University in addition to CEO's and senior officials of corporate India having interest in sports, reveals that there is an imperative need to bring transparency and accountability in the functioning of NSFs.

A whopping 93.9 per cent of the respondents were in favour of bringing all the NSFs under the RTI scanner.