Donny Ranee claims to be heading Association since 2003
By Our Reporter
Shillong: The leadership crisis in the Meghalaya Wushu Association (MWA) has taken a new turn with Donny Ranee now claiming to be the president of the Association even as he refuted the charges leveled by his bete noire, Micky Lywait and his group.
It may be recalled that recently a faction of the Association under Micky Lywait informed that he was elected as president of the MWA on July 10, 2010 while claiming that Ranee, who had been holding the post since 2003, was removed as the president for financial misappropriations.
Ranee, who claims to be the president of the MWA, expressed disappointment over such allegations saying “They (Lywait’s group) failed to notice the hardwork and the effort put in by us in the past few years.”
Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Ranee clarified the issues on financial crisis saying the Association lacks financial support from the government and other organisations while adding “Since the association was started in 2003, we never received any affiliation fees from the district level making it hard for us to organise any big event.”
Responding to the allegation that his fraction had organised the IXth Meghalaya State Wushu Championship at the team- and club-level and not district-level like always, Ranee said for the time being, they had to organise the tournament as team-wise in order to develop the game.
Terming the other group under A Sunn, vice-president of the Association and Johnny Ryntathiang, as ‘ungrateful creatures’, Ranee said they are the ones who are responsible for breaking the Association and poisoning the minds of Mickey Lywait.
Meanwhile, reacting to a query on Ranee’s failure to pay the players who represented the State at the national platform, Ranee said “We do pay them but I also must admit that we have to return the loan costing lakhs of rupees which was taken for organising the state level tournaments since 2003, thus making it difficult to pay the players.”
Responding to the threat of Lywait’s group to file an RTI in regards to the financial misappropriation under the leadership of Ranee since 2003, Ranee said “We welcome their move as this will prove how much work and effort was put into developing this game”.
Recently, the other faction of the MWA asked the Sports department to de-recognise the IXth Meghalaya State Wushu Championship organised by the Ranee-led faction. “We will be organising the state championships in December,” A Sunn, vice president of MWA informed recently.
This faction has also said that it will petition the MSOA and the Directorate of Sports on the issue.
“Even if our voice is not heard here then we will have no other option but to knock the doors of the Wushu Association of India,” the MWA said.