VISAKHAPATNAM: Those who won medals for the country in international meets are waiting for the Government to allot them house sites while others cornered the sites allotted under sports quota.

Former Olympian M.V. Manikyalu, who is one of the few from the State to represent the country in Olympics and first from the city, and also won gold medal in the Commonwealth weightlifting championships in 1986 has been promised a house site after he returned from the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.

Seera Jayaram, a native of Kurupam represented the country in Seoul Asiad and received Arjuna award and the Best Sportsman of Services award while Chinta Pratap Kumar won a medal in the Asian athletics championships. Both applied for house sites long ago.

Unsporting gesture

But to their shock, they recently came to know that as many as 82 persons had been allotted house sites by the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) under the sportspersons quota.

The allotment was done a few years ago. After going through the list they found that only seven among the 82 had represented the State in a national championship.

The three sportsmen welcomed the State players being allotted house-sites but were upset that they had been ignored in spite of winning medals for the country. They strongly condemned the authorities concerned for allotting house sites under sportsmen quota to persons who were in no way related to sports and to followers of political party leaders.

`We are pained'

Mr. Manikyalu is planning to move the court on this issue. The three former internationals were pained to see politicians getting house sites allotted to their followers under sports quota.

While sportspersons living outside the State were being given house sites in the posh Banjara Hills area of Hyderabad when they won medals in international events, those living in the State, particularly Visakhapatnam were being ignored.

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