Chandigarh Olympic Association meet sees high drama over affliations

Several sports associations came down heavily on the last Chandigarh Olympic Association (COA) house during a meeting called by the Chandigarh Deputy Commissioner appointed ‘administrator’ for the purpose of conducting elections of the ‘disputed’ COA.

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On Tuesday, almost all local sports associations attended the meeting at the UT Secretariat under the chairmanship of Hari Kallikkat, and vented out their anger against the COA. Kallikkat had launched secy.chd@gmail.com, asking sports associations to submit their grievances, suggestions and allegations, if any, against the functioning of the COA. The sports associations have been given time till Friday for the final submission, and thereafter a call will be taken on conducting the COA elections or not (by the virtue of appointing an administrator, if needed).

Majority of these associations never got tired of praising the previous house. Not concerned about the conduct of the state games, which have not been held for almost two decades now, the sports associations were aggressively asking for their rights during the meeting. The centre of controversy surrounded one of the office-bearers of the association, who was accused of hiding facts while holding charge of the COA and also carrying affiliation and disaffiliation process of the associated units in a chaotic manner.

“The main issue of the meeting was affiliation and disaffiliation of the associations done by the previous house of the COA. A list of disputed associations and national federation and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) approved associations has also been submitted to the administrator. The sports associations have requested the administrator to follow the government approved national sports code in picking genuine associations for voting rights.

“There were several other allegations levelled by the representatives of sports associations. Many also raised the issue of a COA office-bearer unethically holding the chair. The meeting was good, and we will be submitting our views before Friday,” said one of the representatives of a local sports association.

In absence of no understanding of associations associated with the IOA or Ministry of Sports or national associations or those headed by court appointed administrators and ad-hoc bodies, the officials will now chalk out a plan to pick the genuine associations for conducting the elections.

Meanwhile, sources claimed that the ‘administrator’ asked the COA to bear expenses on issuing a public notice for inviting the sports associations for discussions regarding the association election. A source privy to the matter revealed that the COA had earlier refused to bear the expenses.

This meeting was the outcome of an order (January 17) by the court of Justice Kuldeep Tiwari to hold fresh elections of the COA, in which directions were given the Chandigarh DC to appoint an administrator for the same. On February 10, the DC appointed Kallikkat as the administrator. Hearing a 2021 writ petition filed by former COA secretary Raghumit Singh Sodhi, the court had ordered fresh elections to the association.