17 illegal boats seized at Lake Sports Complex in Chandigarh

Deepankar Sharda

Chandigarh, May 21

The UT Sports Department has seized at least 17 rowing boats, which had been kept illegally at the Lake Sports Complex. The boats allegedly belong to a private university (located in Mohali district) and were kept there on a ‘fake’ authorisation letter of the Directorate of Sports, Panjab University. The boats werelying at the dock allotted to the Panjab University.

During a recent inspection by the UT Sports Department along with officials of the Panjab University some boats had no authorisation stamp markings. On inquiring, it was found that some of these actually belong to the university, while others were sneaked into the complex during the recently concluded rowing and kayaking/canoeing tournaments held at the Sukhna Lake.

“We have taken (around 17-18) boats in our possession. During inspection, we have called some officials from the university sports department and they denied claiming these boats. We found that these were owned by a private university (which recently hosted some events here), and it was brought in illegally with the help of some university officials,” said an official of the department.

“The complex has hosted many water sports activities in the past and someone took advantage of the same to keep the boats. The university is also inquiring whether these boats were parked by any of their own officials on the pretext of charging some fee,” said another official.