Participants cry foul; allege corruption in registration by Federation, Association

Rajesh Dhar
JAMMU, Mar 31: Though the State of Jammu and Kashmir is striving hard to carve a space in the field of sports at the National scene by taking various initiatives, the need is to organize quality tournaments to promote sports in real sense of the word.
Organizing tournaments for the sake of organization is simply ridiculous. The events need to be organized with an aim to uplift the standard of sports and games and not with an objective to earn bad name and ‘fame’.
Jammu and Kashmir hosted National Power Lifting Championship in Jammu recently. Over 1800 lifters from across the country participated in the Championship to vie for the top honours.
Quantitatively the event can be termed as a sporting extravaganza, but qualitatively, it was an eye-wash, a fiasco.
A big number of participants of this National Classic Power Lifting Championship, National Classic Deadlift Championship, Federation Cup Powerlifting Championship and National Classic Bench Press Championship talked to EXCELSIOR and narrated their tale of woes.
They said that the organizers have charged Rs 1,500 each from the participants, who took part in one particular event of this so called sporting extravaganza and Rs 3,000 from those participating in two events, without giving receipt of the paid amount.
“I participated in two events and instead of charging Rs 3,000 from me, the organizers charged Rs 6,000 for the reasons known to them only. I was shocked to see the organizers using different yardsticks for different lifters. Participating in such a polluted atmosphere and expecting upliftment of the standard of sports is to cry for the moon,” said a female participant from Delhi while expressing anonymity.
This Correspondent during his visit to the venue of the Championship observed total mess in holding various events, besides observing installation of temporary stalls and canteens inside the hall, selling food, bananas and allied items at exorbitant rates.
“I am at my wits end to understand as to why we have been charged money by the organizers for getting entry in the Championship. Did the organizers charge it for boarding and lodging, transportation or registration is yet to know. Some lifters stayed in Gurdwaras and some in Dharamshallas and there was hardly any arrangement of accommodation by the organizers. Charging money without issuing receipts carries bad taste. There should have been quality arrangements for holding the event which witnessed participation of over 1800 sportspersons,” said one of the prominent lifters from Karnataka on the condition of anonymity.
Some of the lifters said that extra Rs 500 each was charged from the participants, who failed to produce a valid identity proof, adding that the amount cleared the doubts among the organizers about the identity of the participating lifters.
When contacted, Rajan Jain, Secretary J&K Sports Power Lifting Association said that while hosting mega event like this one, it is the Federation only which registers the players and looks into the arrangements and State Association has hardly anything to do with registration.
He said that the Secretary General Indian Powerlifting Federation, Subrata Dutta, an Arjun Awardee, Hall of Fame was himself present in the Championship, besides President from USA, Peter Throne.
He further said that it was the biggest National Powerlifting, Bench Press, Deadlift and Federation Cup Championship ever happened in the history of the World, adding that lifters from 36 States/UTs participated in this historic event.
“We have organized the event in a befitting manner. We hardly bother for what people say,” Mr Jain added.
Sources close to J&K State Sports Council said that the Council has sanctioned an amount of Rs 4,50,000 for the event with an objective to promote sports and sportspersons in the State.

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