Allotment of sports seats gets delayed in Punjab, coaches fume

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

The Punjab Sports Department has once again delayed the allotment of sports wing seats to affiliated colleges. The suspension comes at a time when the admission process has already started.

While the officials blame the Covid pandemic for the delay, the colleges are finding it difficult to induct sportspersons of the state.

The sports wing seats are usually allocated in the month of May-June.

Under the sports wing scheme, a day scholar gets a specific amount as diet money. The amount is doubled for a residential athlete.

“The delay has occurred due to the Covid pandemic. We are in the process of allotting the sports wing seats. Usually, the last date to admit students in colleges is July 31. However, the date has been extended due to a delay in the examinations. The colleges should not panic,” said a senior official of the Punjab Sports Department seeking anonymity.

The coaches, meanwhile, said they had to put admissions under the sports quota on hold as they had no information on sports wing seats.

“The admission process has started. The officials should have at least given us some clarity on number of seats per college and diet money,” said a Ludhiana based coach.

“Many promising players are moving to other universities to secure their seats and pursue their career amid no clarity from the Punjab Sports Department,” said the coach.

The process to induct players under the reserved seats usually runs for three months from April to June. The colleges get confirmation on the number of seats allotted and hike in diet money, if any, and accordingly, hostel seats are reserved and players get categorised as day scholars and hostellers.

The process helps colleges to induct players before Panjab University inter-college championships.

As per the Panjab University sports calendar, subject to the approval from the Associations of Indian Universities, the championships would be conducted from October this year.

“The players are already out of action for one year and we are left with only a month to prepare for the inter-college competitions. In such a scenario, the department should allot seats so that colleges begin the induction process,” said another coach.  

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