NEW DELHI: Due to spread of the Coronavirus, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) has decided to do away with biometric attendance in all its centres from Wednesday except in the capital. The SAI headquarters here will begin the procedure from Thursday. Attendance will be marked manually in registers. The call was taken after the central government issued a circular to all government offices regarding suspending the Aadhaar Based Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) till the end of this month. SAI did not issue any internal circular and decided to follow the system from Wednesday.
“The SAI headquarters will adopt the same procedure from Thursday due to the number of employees working here. It will take a day to note down everyone’s name in the register,” a SAI source said.
In another development, the SAI National Centre of Excellence in Alleppey, Kerala held a workshop for athletes, coaches and officials to inform them about the virus and the dos and don’ts. The workshop was conducted by health officers and doctors from the health department of the Kerala government.
This was the second such workshop at a major SAI centre after the one in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, last week. There are no plans as of now with regards to holding such workshops in other prominent centres like Patiala, New Delhi and Bengaluru. It can be noted that many athletes who have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics are training there.
Bengaluru SAI closed
The SAI centre in Bengaluru was closed on Tuesday after a few IT professionals who live close by tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. As of now, all athletes who train there have been instructed to remain inside and avoid going out for recreational purposes. They have been assured that all their requirements will be met in-house. The training routine which the centre follows, irrespective of their participation in Tokyo, remains the same. The centre currently houses national campers in athletics (middle and long distance runners), volleyball, weightlifting besides the junior men and women’s hockey teams, numbering around 180.
The ‘Come and Play’ scheme started by the Sports Ministry has been temporarily stopped. The scheme which encourages people to use sporting arenas for practice for free had to be stopped so as not to endanger the athletes who train inside, especially the ones who have qualified for the Olympics. Almost a hundred people used to avail of the facilities for football and swimming. The scheme will remain closed indefinitely till the centre receives the all-clear from the central government.
Only essential personnel like top coaches, officials can enter the premises at this time but only after certain precautions are met. “It is a precarious situation but we are working to ensure minimum hassle for the athletes inside. Apart from the closure of the scheme, outsiders can only enter after following the due procedure, like temperature scanning and travel history disclosure.”