CHENNAI: In a bizarre and unbelievable twist to the fight between the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president and the majority of its executive committee members, the email IDs of the IOA seem to have been suspended. This newspaper tried reaching out to the contact us email id ioa@olympic.ind.in but the mail returned saying “... because the address couldn't be found, or is unable to receive mail”. At least some of the mail addresses, including that of the president are down.
After some enquiry in the IOA, it was found that the email service provider has discontinued with the service due to apparent non-payment of dues. The IOA office later confirmed the development to The New Indian Express.
The IOA chief and the EC have been at loggerheads ever since the CEO, Raghu Iyer, was appointed in January this year. The EC had objected to his appointment on the ground of high salary (a package of over Rs 2.4 crore).
The EC later raised an objection to the appointment of executive assistant to the IOA president as well. Though it was not clear why the payment was not done, insiders believe the two officials -- the CEO and the exec assistant of IOA president -- mail IDs could have been the tipping point as some of the EC members objected to it. The emails were not working for about a week now.
On a common note, IOA president PT Usha, and treasurer Sahdev Yadav are not on the same page and the two, in the absence of Chief Executive Officer, should be running the bank accounts of the IOA.
The finance committee is headed by Ajay Patel and the treasurer also needs to sign cheques. Since the CEO appointment is disputed, he is yet to be the sole operator of IOA accounts.
The constitution says: “Accounts shall be maintained in such Scheduled or Nationalized Bank or Banks, as may be approved by the Executive Council in the name of the Association and shall be operated by the CEO in coordination and consultation with the President and Treasurer. In the absence of the availability of a CEO for any reason, the account shall be jointly operated by the Treasurer and the President.”
The EC and the IOA president, even after the Olympics, have failed to bury the hatchet. The unavailability of mail has been a big concern in the office.
There are regular communications with the IOC that could also include bidding processes and enquiries from time to time. If the mails do not work, things might move southward as the IOA has to send entries for the Asian Winter Games to be held in Harbin, China.
This also could spell trouble for IOA in future communication with everyone including the sports ministry and the Sports Authority of India (SAI). Though the appointment of CEO is under dispute, he had been holding meetings with various organizations including the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the sports ministry.