The national junior skiing championship to be held at Auli near Joshimath from February 19 was postponed for now due to absence of skiing slope. Officials of the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN), organisers of the event, said that the date of the event will be announced depending on whether there is adequate snowfall in the coming days.
Meanwhile, observers allege that the expensive machinery for manufacturing arttifical snow has not been put to use so far. They raised doubts on the utility of the machines procured at a very high amount.
The GMVN along with the winter games federation, were to organise the national level junior skiing championship at Auli from February 19. There were several spell of snow at Auli this year, but with the quantity of snow being comparatively less, the snow didn’t last on the slope for long. With the world-famous ski-slope being bereft of snow, the event organisers have postponed the national level championship.
It should be recalled that the State Tourism Department has declared budgetary allocation for the national level skiing championship. But absence of snow on the slope has created a situation wherein the event in Auli might have to be cancelled.
The GMVN general manager Bl Rana said a meeting will be held after February 20 to deliberate on the matters.
Observers point out that chances of conducting the event are less considering that winter appears to be on the wane in the mountainous region. This is not the first time that a national level event slated to be held at Auli had to be deferred due to the absence of snow. In the previous year too, a national level skiing competition had to be put on hold due to the lack of snow at Auli. This despite the presence of expensive machinery for manufacturing artificial snow installed here during the South Asian Federation (SAF) winter games in 2010-11. The snow-making machines have since then not been used even once.
Observers said that an event at Auli had to be postponed due to the absence of snow and it has once again brought to light the corruption in procurement and installation of the expensive snow-making machines, which have remained as show-pieces. It remains to be seen whether this instance will motivate the officials responsible to check the status and utility of the snow making machinery at Auli.