Deepankar Sharda
Chandigarh, November 30
After appointing officers from other states to the posts of Secretary (Sports), Director (Sports) and Joint Director, Sports (JDS), the UT Administration has now chosen a Haryana official for the post of District Sports Officer (DSO), confirm sources.
The Sports Department will now have all top administrative officials from other states. At present, Vinod P Kavle (IAS) is the Secretary (Sports), Sorabh Kumar Arora (PCS) is the Director (Sports) and HP-cadre officer Sunil Rayat is the JDS. The new DSO is said to be a former boxing coach from Haryana.
The sources claimed of the three officers shortlisted for the post, two appeared for the interview on November 23. Of the two officials, one was a former coach of the UT Sports Department, who had served as DSO earlier, and the other was from Haryana (posted in Panchkula).
For years, coaches of the department have been demanding promotion to the scales of the DSO or any temporary arrangement (from within the department) to get promoted to the top posts. However, their demands have been ignored by the authorities.
The post of DSO has been lying vacant since January 1. Former coach Ravinder Singh (Laddi) retired from the post on November 30, 2020. Later, the department appointed former judo coach Krishan Lal to the post under ‘additional charge’. He retired on December 31, 2021. The department has been without a DSO since then.
In September, the administration had invited applications for the post, for the first time, from retired and pensioners on a contractual basis for a period of one year or till it was filled on a regular basis.
