The Education and Sports Minister Arvind Pandey got annoyed with department officials when during the course of interaction with the office bearers of various sports association in State secretariat on Monday he realised that the process of registration and renewal of sports bodies is marred by inordinate delays.
A clearly upset Minister warned that the person in-charge for delay should be changed immediately and asked the sports officers to review and act accordingly.
In the meeting the Minister inquired about the problems faced by different sports bodies and assured to solve them. Pandey also directed the Joint Secretary, Sports to start a toll free number to ensure the grievances of those associated with sports in the state are listened and their problems addressed.
The Minister appointed Assistant director S K Sharki, as nodal officer to look into the problems faced by the sports bodies and asked him to be in touch with the office-bearers of the different sports bodies.
In the meeting ,Pandey also sought a list of national and international players from the different sports bodies in their respective fields and also asked them to send him a report of their achievements in their sport. He asked the sports organisations to give him a proposal on the facilities that could be provided by the state government.
On the demand for training of Baseball players in Suddhowala area, the Minister directed that five acre land should be earmarked for the purpose. For training of Judo players, he directed the Joint Director, Sports to provide space for training in Maharana Pratap sports Stadium.
The Sports Minister said that the purpose of holding meeting with different sports organsations was to find solution to the problems being faced in nurturing young players. He said that to sort out the problems between two rival football associations, a meeting will be held with the office-bearers within a week.
The Kedarnath MlA and secretary of Kayaking and Rafting association, Manoj Rawat said that infrastructure facilities for kayaking at Roorkee and Salalam at Chandrapuri (Rudraprayag) are available. He called for holding of a permanent camp for water sports training in the State.
The General Secretary of Judo association, Satish Sharma said that by providing priority in jobs, scholarships and training facilities will attract youth towards sports. Karate Association office bearers demanded a place for training players in Tehri.
The Secretary, sports Bhupinder Kaur Aulkah, Joint Secretary Attar Singh, Additional Director Dharmender Singh, Harish Bhatt of Uttarakhand Volleyball Association, Virender Singh Rawat of Uttarakhand Football Association, SP Chamoli of Uttarakhand Winter Games Association and others attended the meeting.