 Abodh Sharma
JAMMU, Nov 21: Some hundred athletes who converge at MA stadium, the main sporting centre of the region everyday to put their blood and sweat together for the glory of the state at the national sporting arena are a distressed lot as third time in less than a month, the stadium has been allotted for non sporting activities, bringing their training to a disappointing halt repeatedly.
"It was a camp by a religious preacher in the last week of October, followed by Rahul Gandhi's rally on November 6 and now the public rally of Narendra Modi on December 1, for which the stadium has been rendered out of bound for the athletes," said Sushant, a regular athlete at MA stadium. "The worst is still to come as in just a weeks, the stadium shall be closed once again for more than a month ahead of Republic day celebrations," he added in anguish. "By these irrational allotments, authorities re depriving us opportunities to perform at the national level, thus directly affecting our career prospects because only if we get a medal at the nation level, we qualify for jobs under sports quota," he added further.
These rallies might be one day affairs, but the stadium is sanitized and sealed for security reasons weeks in advance. "When the religious camp was organized, the tentage and decoration was so elaborate that it took the organizers days before and after the function to pull them off and handover the stadium for regular training. Same has been case with the rallies of Rahul and Modi, the stadium has been sealed with barbed wires and the regular activities have been forbidden," said Arpit, a cricketer.
"It is unfortunate that eventhough the Council authorities charge fee from the players for using their facility, there is no policy for allotting the stadium for non sporting activities" said a parent of a regular trainee in cricket. "Why should stadium be used to hold political rallies when such events damage the ground and affect regular training of so many disciplines?" he questioned.
An officer of the State Sports Council at Jammu while admitting that the training was being hindered too often due to non sporting events which should not be held in the Stadium said, "allotment is not in my purview and it is done by the Council secretariat." Meanwhile, Siddharth Sharma, Joint Secretary of the Council who is serving third consecutive term in violation of norms did not respond to repeated calls on his cellphone.
It is pertinent to mention here that sealing the stadium for the republic day function has been debated year after year and former Chief Minister had assured that in view of the prolonged disruption to the sporting activities, the Republic Day function shall be shifted to Army stadium in Sunjwan or police stadium at Gulshan ground, but nothing happened on ground and the stadium continues to be under the siege of the security for over a month ahead of the Republic Day.
It is also pertinent to mention here that another former CM, Ghulam Nabi Azad had assured an identified place for holding political rallies and such functions in Jammu on the lines of Boat Club in New Delhi, but the land he hinted at, on the bank of river Tawi has reportedly been auctioned by the JDA for the construction of a hotel and the MA stadium and the sporting fraternity continue to bear the brunt of official apathy. |
