Sports Dept may review gradation policy

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 17

As the Indian Sports Ministry denied giving fresh recognition to the School Games Federation of India (SGFI), local sportspersons now fear losing gradation of their certificates.

While the local authorities maintained that they are yet to receive an official notification, sources said the department may consider grading of last year’s certificates. “We have not received any official confirmation as of now. But usually, the orders are implemented for the next or ongoing session. We need to first check the orders before deciding anything on it,” said Ravinder Singh, UT District Sports Officer.

“The department will consider certificates of last year for gradation. The gradation has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the department is likely to solve this issue before May 31,” said a source.

On May 11, the Sports Ministry granted recognition to 54 national federations till September this year, leaving out the governing bodies of archery, golf, gymnastics and paralympics among others. In the revised list, the ministry granted fresh recognition to the All-India Carrom Federation. The Paralympic Committee of India (PCI), Rowing Federation of India (RFI) and the SGFI were the ones denied affiliation.

According to the UT Sports Department, achievers in disciplines, including archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, canoe/kayak, cricket, cycling, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, kho kho, rowing, shooting, softball, skating, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling, will be considered under the gradation policy.

Benefits under gradation

On an average, the UT Sports Department issues over 2,000 gradation certificates every year. The UT Administration has adopted the notification of other states/UTs on a reciprocal basis to give benefit of reservation only in admission under the sports category. The players get graded as per the existing policy of the Administration. Under the gradation policy, local players, who pass their qualifying examination from schools/colleges recognised by the UT Administration as regular students and have studied in Chandigarh schools/colleges for at least two years before applying for gradation certificate, subject to the condition that such students must represent Chandigarh state schools in the national level or other recognised tournaments.