The Hindu : Sport / Generalia : Sports Minister visits Nehru Stadium

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Thursday, Jul 15, 2004

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Sport - Generalia

Sports Minister visits Nehru Stadium

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 14. The Union Sports Minister, Sunil Dutt, visited the Nehru Stadium on Wednesday in order to get a first-hand account of the conditions in which the athletes live at the residential wing there.

Following a newspaper report about the poor conditions in which the Olympic probables were forced to live, Mr. Dutt took a round of the residential wing, the canteen and other areas and pulled up the Sports Authority of India (SAI) officers. He wanted them to take remedial measures within a week.

Mr. Dutt looked appalled at the conditions, especially that of the toilets. He told the officers that the residential accommodation should be something like a five-star hotel. He told the athletes, including K.M. Beenamol and her brother K.M. Binu, that they should approach him whenever there was a problem.

The minister was told that five of the AC rooms at the ground level that were normally allotted to elite athletes, coaches or VIPs, were kept vacant and reserved in the name of Secretary, SAI.

The sportspersons including top hockey players and athletes, have been living in the dormitories, four to six to a room, ever since the residential wing was created. The overall conditions at the Nehru Stadium, built for the 1982 Asian Games, had deteriorated during the past 10 years. Lack of funds had often been cited as the reason for its poor maintenance. Sportspersons had in the past complained about the poor quality of food served at the canteen not to speak of its unhygienic conditions.

More deplorable had been the condition of the blocks that house the National federations, with seepage and leakages causing considerable damage over a period of time. The SAI has had readymade answers in terms of estimates prepared and put in cold storage as far as renovations and repairs go.

At the time when the Afro-Asian Games were initially planned to be held in Delhi, an estimate of Rs. 76 lakhs was drawn up for the repairs of the toilet blocks at the upper concourse alone, according to an official. The games were shifted to Hyderabad and the repairs were never carried out.

Now, only cosmetic changes can be carried out to improve the conditions at the residential wing, but to stop the complete leakage and seepage, elaborate repairs and more funds would be required. The minister has promised to release more funds.

In the meantime, unless federations can afford, or the ministry can release more funds for hotel accommodation, sportspersons preparing for Olympics and other major international meets will continue to live in dormitories, just as they have been doing for the past two decades and more.

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