The Hindu : Sport : ‘Clean Sports India' gaining momentum

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Thursday, Jul 15, 2010
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‘Clean Sports India' gaining momentum

BANGALORE: The ‘Clean Sports India' movement launched by 10 prominent international sportspersons in New Delhi on June 23 is gaining momentum, according to Ashwini Nachappa, former athlete and the vice president of the new body.

To highlight the objectives of the movement, Clean Sports India will conduct its first ‘awareness run' from Sree Kanteerava stadium on July 25 at 7.30 a.m.

“Mismanagement and lack of transparency by politicians at the helm of affairs in the various sports federations is the bane of Indian sports and this needs to be rectified,” said B.V.P. Rao, former international in equestrian and the national convenor of the Clean Sports India, at a press conference here this afternoon.

“Most of them (politicians and those without any sports background) have no clue about the sports bodies that they head, and are into it only for the glamour and foreign trips involved,” added Mr. Rao.

Opposing the candidature of Pallum Raju, Minister of State for Defence, who has filed his nomination for the president's post in the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI), for which the elections are due on July 31, the Clean Sports India members are writing to the Army Chief, the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister against the take-over.

Reeth Abraham, former international athlete stated that the objectives of the movement is to “create an environment wherein Olympic sports federations, associations and clubs in India are managed essentially by sportspersons, and an atmosphere wherein Olympic sports in India are practiced and competed without the influence of drugs.”

“This civil movement is to object to the corrupt and unaccountable officials ruling sports for political mileage, and the sporting fraternity along with the support of the public at large will oppose it” said Ashwini Nachappa.

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