In Olympic qualifying year, SAI gets stingy

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 15

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the National Sports Federations (NSFs) are headed for a showdown over the proposed Budget earmarked under the Annual Calendar for Training and Competition (ACTC).

Remember the controversy involving the Hockey India (HI) and the SAI last year, where the former had threatened to pull out of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and Incheon Asian Games, citing lack of fund allocation from the Government? The Indian sporting fraternity is bracing for a similar face-off as the SAI has decided to drastically cut down the ACTC funds for 2015-16, which happens to be an Olympic qualifying year.

Keeping in mind the 2016 Rio Olympics, a majority of the NSFs had asked the SAI to increase their annual grant in order to fund the athletes’ training and equipment needs, arrange for more international exposure trips and engage specialised coaches for a short period to fine-tune the preparations of their medal hopefuls.

The Ministry had approved Rs 185 crore as part of the ACTC for the year 2014-15, out of which the SAI had allocated Rs 160 crore to the NSFs. This time, too, the Ministry had allocated Rs 185 crore for the ACTC out of its annual budget of Rs 1,764 crore, but the SAI decided to further peg it down to Rs 150 crore for 2015-16, a neat cut of Rs 10 crore from the earlier budgetary allocation to the NSFs.

The SAI has almost finalised the ACTC, this despite the NSFs submitting an increased budgetary proposal to the apex sports body. Last year, some of the priority sports such as shooting had received Rs 21.5 crore as part of the ACTC, hockey (20 crore) and wrestling (13 crore).

This year, the National Rifles Association of India (NRAI) had submitted an ACTC budget of Rs 27 crore to the SAI. Similarly, Hockey India (HI) had demanded Rs 44 crore, while the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) asked for Rs 26 crore. However, it has been reliably learnt that the SAI has decided to allocate HI about Rs 21 crore, NRAI (20 crore) and wrestling (13 crore).

Other Olympic disciplines have also been earmarked a lesser amount, which could seriously affect the preparation of the Indian athletes for the Rio Games. “The ACTC forms an integral part of our budget. In the absence of proper funding, it would be difficult for us to spend on athletes’ training, equipment and dietary needs. We won’t be able to send them on regular exposure trips abroad or hold the national camps,” a federation official said.