CHENNAI: The extraordinary general body meeting called by the Rowing Federation of India (RFI) was held in Hyderabad as per schedule on Saturday with all the necessary amendments made to the constitution. According to RFI president Rajlaxmi Singh Deo, re-elections will happen during mid-February without fail.
“All amendments that were proposed have been passed unanimously after the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) pointed out the anomalies. Now, we have to submit the amended constitution. We will soon send a word regarding the same to the IOA, ministry and the international federation. The process has started,” Deo said. RFI’s constitution had the provision of proxy voting since 1976 and elections have been carried out without any objections from the ministry or IOA.
The constitution also contains the provision of three votes. Due to gender equality, one woman voter was introduced as a mandatory requirement. The ministry has objected to three votes. Now, all that has been changed after the IOA and later the sports ministry asked them to do away with proxy-voting in accordance with the 2011 National Sports Development Code guidelines.
The decision to amend the constitution was taken after ministry informed RFI that the federation won’t be recognised. RFI elections that were held on December 6, 2019, was deemed invalid because of proxy voting and three councillors per state/member voting. The ministry had said that RFI’s recognition will cease from February 1 if they do not comply with the 2011 Sports Code. On Thursday, the RFI had written to the ministry requesting them to extend the deadline to February 29 so that they address all the objections raised.