MUMBAI: In their bid to ensure Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) complies with the National Sports Development Code 2011 and vests in them powers and rights they have been demanding for long, state associations on Saturday formed a five-member committee. Karnataka Equestrian Association president Jitu Virwani was named chairman of the panel.
As many as 22 state units met at Embassy International Riding School in Bengaluru on Saturday to chart a roadmap for improving the landscape of the sport in the country. “Our immediate task is to make EFI include our viewpoint in the roadmap it will present to the sports ministry before March 31,” said Virwani. “We will work to ensure that the plan is set for a specific timeline.
Above all, we will push EFI to ensure that our athletes do not skip any international events due to poor planning.” The states are at loggerheads with EFI, accusing the body of negligence. The Rajasthan association has even filed a writ petition against the federation in the Delhi High Court. “We are sure we can convince EFI to amend its statutes to comply with the sports code and reframe a number of policies. Those including selection, allotment of events and horse management, apart from pressing the government to change import and quarantine regulations.”
Colonel Rajesh Pattu (Retd), convenor of the newly-formed panel, said it was ironic to hear EFI officials say that state units do not conduct any events on their own. “We kept telling the federation that events should be allotted to state associations rather than to clubs and units, but to no avail.” The five-member panel will seek guidance of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) through its state units for improving EFI’s functioning in each state. It will also ask IOA to help it in forming associations in states, which do not have governing bodies at the moment.