New Delhi: Three days after de-recognising two federations, the Sports Ministry issued a notice to the Athletics Federation of India on Monday to remove a few contentious clauses from its constitution and hold re-elections for the post of president and secretary.
Taking a tough stand on the National Sports Federations ever since the International Olympic Committee suspended the IOA, the Ministry shot off a letter to the AFI drawing its attention to the clauses and warned of taking action if those were not rectified.
The development triggered off speculations that the AFI could be the next federation to be de-recognised after the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) and the Archery Association of India (AAI).
The sports secretary Pradip Deb said that the Ministry has advised the AFI to remove a few restrictive clauses and re-hold elections only for the post of the president and secretary.
“There will be no de-recognition as of today,” Deb said.
“Only thing we have found, there is a clause in the constitution of the AFI that is in conflict with only the post of the president and secretary. So, we have advised the AFI to remove the restricted clause and hold the elections only for these two posts. Everything else is fine,” he added.
The Sports Minister, Jitendra Singh also said that there has been no ban imposed so far on the AFI.
“As of now there is no ban imposed. We are looking at all the Federations which are not following the sports code. The process is going on. Those who are not following the code, ban could be imposed on them,” said Singh.
The Sports Ministry had recently de-recognised both IABF and the AAI.
While AAI was de-recognised for “violating the age and tenure guidelines” of the government’s sports code during its elections last month, IABF’s election process was “flawed and faulty” according to the Sports Ministry.
The de-recognitions of AAI and IABF by the government came just three days after the International Olympic Committee has suspended Indian Olympic Association for not following the Olympic Charter during its recent elections.
AFI president Adille Sumariwala told IANS that he had met the sports secretary and had explained to him the issues his department has raised.
“I have met the sports secretary and have explained all the points raised by the ministry. I want to make it amply clear that the AFI is completely in sync with the ministry. We have adopted the sports code in respect to the tenure of office and age limit of the office bearers,” he said.
AFI secretary-general CK Valson said the federation didn’t violate any norms during the election.
“We haven’t violated any rules while conducting the election. We have replied to the show-cause notice,” said Valson. (Agencies)