Ms M. Ragini said there is no post of either a director or an assistant director at the centre
Sport Authority of India, Punnamada centre
ALAPPUZHA: The Sports Authority of India centre at Punnamada here, which was rocked by the suicide of an athlete recently, lacks basic facilities like a women’s hostel. The centre, set up in September 1987, has no station director or assistant station director though it has helped the state earn several national and international medals.
Ms M. Ragini, centre in-charge for a decade, said there is no post of either a director or an assistant director at the centre. “The centre has no hostel facility for girls. All the female athletes, including seniors and juniors, are currently staying in the same rented hostel. Six seniors, being trained under the centre of excellence scheme, are also living in the hostel along with the juniors,” she says.
J. Sandhya, child rights activists and member, state commission for protection of child rights, feels that there should be separate accommodation for junior and senior athletes. “The junior athletes’ needs, priorities, habits and interests are different from that of seniors. Hence, there is the possibility of conflict of interests between them ending up in harassment against the juniors,” she observes.
However, the parents of the disgruntled athletes believe that the six senior athletes are being accommodated under a non-existing scheme. K.S. Reji, father of an athlete, says the centre of excellence scheme was discontinued by the SAI governing body from last April. It’s unclear on what basis the seniors are accommodated in a hostel where juniors are staying.
Ragini said the scheme was introduced this year and the seniors were accommodated in the previous years with special permission. “There is no separate hostel for seniors. At all the centres in the state, the juniors and seniors are accommodated in the same hostel,” she clarified.
A team of psychologists had carried out a four-day session at the centre following the tragic incident. Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, speaking on behalf of sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal in the Lok Sabha on May 15, had said that an assistant director would be stationed at the centre till normalcy was restored. Mr Rudy had also said yoga might be introduced as a compulsory activity at all SAI centres for the holistic development.
( Source : dc )
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