Deepankar Sharda
Chandigarh, September 7
The Chandigarh Olympic Association (COA) has asked the state associations to reserve train tickets of players, qualified to participate in the Gujarat National Games, on their own. The COA will reimburse the amount before the local contingent leaves for Gujarat, claimed a senior official. The games are scheduled to start from September 27 and continue till October 10.
“We have requested the respective associations to reserve train tickets of players on their own. We will reimburse the entire amount before the local squad leaves for Gujarat,” said NS Thakur, general secretary, COA, who is in Dehradun to attend the Khelo India Women’s Judo National League. Asked about issuing kits to Chandigarh’s contingent, Thakur said the COA would surely give kits to the local contingent and the UT Sports Department will also issue some kits. “Yes, we will issue kits soon and the Sports Department will also help in this,” said Thakur.
However, the COA is termed ‘partially defunct’ as it failed to organise any sporting event for the past over 15 years now, and it will be interesting on what basis the Sports Department, a government body, helps the COA in issuing kits. The COA is already under questioning for not issuing any notification regarding organising the State Games, which were last conducted in October 2005.
“The days are numbered. However, we are still in dark about sending the local contingent to Gujarat. Neighbouring states have already started the process of issuing kits to their players. They must be ready with the travelling plan. However, the Chandigarh contingent is still in dark,” said an office-bearer of a local association. Notably, the COA had even failed to organise the State Games before the 2015 National Games, which were held in Thiruvananthapuram.
“How can we expect our players to perform at such an important platform? The COA is not conducting any training camp, not giving any diet, not organising state games and not even revealing travelling plans of the local contingent. If the state associations have to manage everything, as they are already doing, the officials should rethink on the reason behind COA’s existence,” said another coach, whose trainees have been qualified for the National Games.
