Mismanagement and absence of even the basic facilities in the 13th State-level schools sports competition caused great inconvenience to the 560 athletes who participated in the event.
The students said the rooms allotted to them by the organising officials in a school did not even have panes on doors and windows. With night temperature dropping to around 12-15° Celsius in Raipur and surrounding districts, students stayed up all night battling the cold.
No arrangement of mattresses, pillows and or even blankets were made by the organisers. Many students were seen sleeping on the cold floor while some slept on their personal sheets. On the other hand, the rooms allotted to the sports officer had proper bedding arrangements including blankets.
Meanwhile, the event was cut short by a day. The state-level sports event that were scheduled to be held from December 4-6 were cut short by one day and concluded on Friday. In what looked like a perfunctory gesture, cricket match with scheduled 20-20 overs was reduced to a game of merely 10-10 overs.
Director of sports and youth welfare Jitendra Shukla said the event was organised by the education department and so he could not comment on the issue. When contacted, school education secretary and commissioner Dinesh Shrivastav said that the organising committee of the competition is responsible for the arrangements Winners
In the zonal cricket between girls’ team, Durg won by eight wickets against Raipur and Surguja defeated Rajnandgaon by 14 runs. Claiming a second title, Durg won by seven wickets playing against Jashpur.
Among boys’ team, Raipur defeated Surguja by eight wickets while Jashpur snatched away victory from Bilaspur by one wicket. Bastar defeated Surguja by seven wickets. In the semifinals between Raipur and Jashpur, Raipur won by two wickets. Durg defeated Bastar by nine wickets. The competitions were held at Agrawal Stadium in Ganjpara.