Sonowal gone, but still no supplements for athletes at NIS

Karam Parkash

Patiala, May 28

Former sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal has apparently not kept the promise he made to the elite track and field athletes about two weeks back at NIS, Patiala.

During a surprise visit to the premier sports institution earlier this month, the then sports minister had assured the athletes attending a national camp that he would get in touch with the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and they would start getting food supplements within 48 hours.

It’s been two weeks since he gave the assurance, but the national campers are still training without the supplements. “Despite the assurance from Sonowal, we haven’t heard anything from AFI yet on the matter,” said Bahadur Singh, the chief national athletics coach. Clearly, AFI is not bothered, even though the athletes need all the support they can get with the Rio Olympics just less than three months away.

Beginning of the trouble

The problem arose when, in September last year, the Sports Authority of India (SAI), on the advice of the Sports Ministry, tasked the National Sports Federations (NSFs) with the procurement and distribution of the supplements among the national campers. It was done primarily to ensure the quality and timely availability of the supplements. Until then, all sportspersons had been procuring it themselves. While the arrangement seems to be working fine in other disciplines like wrestling, weightlifting and boxing, the track and field athletes haven’t received the supplements even once since the new plan was put in place.

The blame for this lies with AFI, which is clearly dragging its feet on the matter. 

In February, when The Tribune raised the matter, the federation claimed it was confused about who between it and SAI was supposed to make the purchase. It was, of course, a lame excuse, for the Sports Ministry had already issued very clear guidelines on the process of procurement and distribution of the supplements. Besides, no other federation seemed confused about its role in the entire process.