In an incident which reflects the manner in which sports are treated in the State a ten- year-old swimmer who is a contender for the National games, her father and grandfather were shuttled from one office to the other by the authorities for issuance of age certificate.
The girl Meghna, a resident of Nehru Colony was selected for under 10 swimming competition for National Games. When she visited the office of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dehradun on Thursday for age certificate, her father was informed that for it he had to get an order from the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM). The little girl accompanied by her father and aged grandfather then went to the office of SDM after purchasing a stamp paper for the required affidavit.
After some wait the SDM gave the order to the CMO to provide her the required age certificate. After these tiring efforts the trio presented these papers at the office of CMO but here the officials told them that the order of SDM should be from his court. An exhausted grandfather of the swimmer got furious at this point of time and charged the CMO office of unnecessary harassment.
Her father Yogendra Agarwal, an ex servicemen told The Pioneer that for participating in the national games a certificate issued by office of CMO is needed. “If the official concerned had told us that order of SDM court is needed in the first place then we would have been saved from the hardship of visiting the SDM office twice. Similar certificates were issued by this office in past too but no one asked for SDM court order then,’’ he said. The father of the girl said that instead of cooperating with sportspersons the officials adopt a negative view and try to linger things on.
The CMO of Dehradun, Dr T C Pant said that a government order of 2012 mandated that the age certificate would be issued only when the SDM court issues direction for it. He said that if similar certificates in past had been issued without the mandated order from his office then the matter would be looked into.