CHENNAI: In another setback to the under-fire Rowing Federation of India (RFI), the sports ministry on Wednesday informed them that their recognition will not be renewed due to them violating the national sports code.
The ministry, in a letter to RFI, referred to the report of the government observer for the body’s December 6 elections in Hyderabad. The report pointed out a number of violations of the sports code in the way the RFI conducted the elections.
“As per the website of RFI, RFI has 21 state/UT units out of which only 18 participated in the election process. RFI does not fulfil the 2/3 state/UT affiliation criteria as it must have had at least 25 state/UT as its affiliated members,” the letter said.
The sports ministry reportedly had already told them about this last year. The ministry had told the federation that it needed to spread the sport to more centres. However, ministry felt, as of now nothing has been done.
It also said that the RFI had allowed proxy voting despite there being no provisions for it in the sports code and allowed three votes per state as opposed to the recommended two.
The ministry also took offence with secretary MV Sriram holding the post yet again. Their contention was that he was secretary for two terms already and hence would have to enter a four-year cooling-off period.
“The above matter has been considered and it has been decided that the recognition of the RFI would cease w.e.f 01/02/2020 and not be renewed in view of the positions explained above,” the letter said. RFI president Rajlaxmi Singh Deo termed the decision disheartening.
“Putting it (the sport) under an ad-hoc committee with Olympic qualification coming up is detrimental,” she said. “It will send a wrong signal to the international body. It doesn’t give a good impression of us as a sporting country. Putting us under an ad-hoc committee without giving us a proper hearing is very upsetting.”
She added the association would now amend its constitution, hold fresh polls and go back to the ministry. “Since they’ve said these two things have to be removed, we’ll call for a meeting to amend the constitution on Saturday,” she said.
“Once that is done, we will go through an electoral process all over again, inform the ministry and also apprise them of the difficulties that we are facing.”
Ministry sources revealed that once the concerns they had raised in the letter are addressed, the RFI could approach them for a review.