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THE Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s announcement in December last year that the Union Government was seriously considering the setting up of a defence university in place of the NIS, a vibrant sports body and widely perceived to be Asia’s premier sports institute, has opened a hot debate among sports administrators in the region. First things first. What was the immediate provocation for the CM to announce the setting up of a defence institute when the country already has the National Defence Academy (NDA) and the Indian Military Academy (IMA)? A majority of sports enthusiasts in this part of the country, and this includes the entire NIS fraternity, are peeved at the manner in which Capt Amarinder Singh has gone out of his way to announce the closure of the sports institute, which ironically was given to the Central Government in 1961 by none other than the forefathers of Amarinder. This fact is very conveniently being swept under the carpet by the CM and his coterie and many observers, who are against the moving of the institute, have pointed this out to the CM on many occasions, but to no avail. A top NIS official revealed that in December last year when the son of Bharatinder Chahal, media adviser to the CM, was to get married, the institute’s top brass was asked to provide the main lawns, located in front of the main administrative block, for the reception. The request, which was routed through the CM’s office, got a big rebuff when the NIS Regional Director, L.S Ranawat, declined to provide the lawns. The SAI DG’s office was approached in New Delhi and still things failed to move favourably for Chahal. Chahal, a blue eyed boy of Capt Amarinder Singh, was irked and so was the state’s Chief Executive. A few days later, the CM at a press conference held ironically at one of the biggest sports grounds in the state-the Polo ground, announced the shifting of the NIS to Bangalore, lock, stock and barrel. The CM’s announcement, termed as harsh and premature by many, had the entire sports fraternity up in arms. Many even questioned the locus standi of the CM in making such an announcement since it was pointed out that he had no control over defence-related matters. Said a senior SAI officer, "The NIS was set up through an Act of Parliament and according to the provisions of the sale deed,no other institute can come up in its place." The CM, who was addressing a gathering of ex-servicemen, said that " Nearly 90 per cent of the NIS has already been shifted to Bangalore, which is the SAI’s southern centre." This hollow statement was met with disapproval and scepticism by employees of the NIS. The majority viewpoint was that it was the other way around as just 10 per cent of the courses and infrastructure have been to Bangalore , while the other 90 per cent are still at the NIS. The institute was set up in 1961 and land for this purpose was given by the Punjab Government to the Government of India with the active cooperation of Maharaja Yadavindra Singh, father of the present CM. The institute was set up following the recommendations of a high- powered committee of the Central Government which had said that the setting up of such an institute was necessary "to arrest the falling standard of sports in India." The Union Government has sunk crores for setting up top-class sporting infrastructure which includes a state-of-the-art velodrome, a part of which has recently been relaid with the help of experts of the Cycling Federation of India (CFI), an eight-lane synthetic track, where many domestic-level athletic meets are held every year, a hockey astro- turf, a sophisticated gymnasium, an all-weather swimming pool constructed to international specifications, modern boxing, weightlifting wrestling and badminton halls, a sports library, sports museum and seven hostels, all of which have been equipped with ultra-modern facilities. Apart from this the NIS also houses several sports sciences and sports medicine laboratories boasting of sophisticated equipment purchased at exorbitant prices from abroad. For the past four decades, the institute, which not many months ago was touted as a tourist sport by none other than Capt Amarinder Singh, has been running various professional courses in an endeavour to improve the standard of sports in the country. Prominent among these courses are the immensely popular diploma in sports coaching, masters and certificate courses in sports coaching and various refresher courses meant for working SAI and state Sports Department coaches. Among other things that the Institute specialises in, due to its modern infrastructure, are the holding of national camps ahead of every Asian games and Asian Championships, SAF Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympics. The implementation of the Sports Promotion Development Area (SPDA) schemes, floated from time to time by the Union Sports Ministry and the organising of the National Women Sports Festival, North-East Sports festival and the National Rural Sports Festival too come under the purview of the NIS. Meanwhile, notwithstanding the CM’s `lofty’ announcements, the NIS authorities have gone ahead with some big spending on the institute. According to L.Ranawat, Regional Director, the SAI has already cleared Rs 12 crore which have been given to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) for initiating development projects. Plans are afoot to provide another astro-turf, which will be laid adjacent to the existing one. The tennis and volleyball courts and the synthetic track will also be equipped with floodlights while two shooting ranges-outdoor and indoor- are expected to come up with the next few months. No doubt with such a big monolith in place and with the livelihood of hunderds of employees at stake, the CM’s annoucement was bound to trigger protests from the NIS employees. The anger is still simmering and this is reflected from Ranawat’s statement that "come what may, the NIS will not be shifted from Patiala." — Ravi Dhaliwal
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SAI not game for move
PUNJAB Chief Minister Amarinder Singh may nurse the ambition to turn NIS Patiala into a defence university, but the Sports Authority of India (SAI) will have none of it. It has, in fact, big plans to upgrade the infrastructure there to make it a "focal point" for the coaching programme of the Indian sportspersons for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. SAI Director-General Rattan P. Wattal said the NIS, Patiala, was a "Centre of Excellence, and the most prestigious one at that", and the Finance Committee has approved many schemes to revamp the facilities at the Motibagh Palace Complex to make it one of the best in the world. Shortage of accommodation for the athletes has been a major deterrent in holding regular coaching camps in Patiala. "But we are addressing that problem", he added. "Most of the sports federations want to have their coaching camps in Patiala. But we are not able to oblige all of them due to paucity of hostel accommodation.We have now approved plans to construct a 300-bedded hostel for men and a 100-bedded hostel for women, besides laying of new sythentic tracks for athletics and hockey, developing a water sports centre, construction of a multi-purpose hall, a state-of-the-art gym, a new shooting range etc.", elaborated Wattal. The youthful DG, an IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, was a key official in the high-powered committee of former State Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu when Hyderabad created world-class infrastructure at the Gachhibowli sports complex to hold the 2002 National Games and the inaugural Afro-Asian Games in 2003. Wattal, therefore, has hands-on experience in the working of the sports federations and the overall sports set-up in the country. He said the SAI would be seeking around Rs 5000crore from the Centre to create infrastructure for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and the changes envisaged will have a cascading effect on Patiala too. 0Wattal said money was not a problem in maintaining and improving the infrastructure at Patiala. But he explained that new centres of excellence had to be created to cater to the coaching needs and infrastructural facilities throughout the country. He denied the charge that NIS Patiala was under-utilised. "The NIS Patiala, in fact, is being over-used. There is tremendous crowding there, and the SAI is unable to cope with the rush there," he explained. But Wattal admitted that weather was a major factor which prevented round-the-year coaching programmes in Patiala. "During the peak summer and winter months, sportspersons find it difficult to train at the Northern Centre. Hence the SAI had to set up a comparatively smaller centre like Bangalore where the weather is just fine for year-round coaching", explained Wattal. "Nevertheless, Patiala is much sought-after by the athletes and coaches alike for its good food, the infrastructure, the general ambience, and other facilities," he added. No wonder, the SAI is keen to develop the NIS Patiala to its optimum level, but at the same time maintaining the stance that other centres need to be developed too, like the Laxmibhai National Institute of Sports at Thiruvanathapuram in Kerala and the North-East, to suit varying climatic conditions for coaching and training. Wattal saw no merit in the Punjab CM kicking up a row about the perceived "under-utilisation" of the Motibagh Palace complex, and his threat to take it back to set-up a defence university. He said certain diploma courses had been discontinued as the SAI had stopped recruiting coaches and scientific personnel since 1994. "There is no point in churning out coaching graduates if we cannot give them employment", he defended. The DG said the sports medicine wing was being curtailed as ample facilities were available outside for the SAI to outsource them, instead of incurring heavy, but avoidable, expenditure. Wattal said a few Army officials had indeed sought his approval to inspect the NIS Patiala. "But I have no instructions from the higher-ups in this regard". Indian Olympic Association (IOA) secretary-general Randhir Singh, who belongs to the Patiala Royal family, had alleged that the Motibagh Palace, a heritage property, was in a poor shape due to improper maintenance. Wattal countered this charge, but conceded that the SAI was in consultation with INTACH (Indian National Trust, Art and Cultural Heritage) for the upkeep of the Motibagh Palace. "We are also going to have a tie-up with the Budapest Institute of Coaching (of Hungary) to make NIS Patiala one of the best." In any case, neither the Patiala Royal family nor the Punjab Government can have any claim on the Motibagh Palace complex. "It has been sold to the SAI. We have made payment to purchase the property, and the sale deeds are with us. The Punjab Government has no locus standi vis a vis the Motibagh Palace complex. We will not allow the NIS complex to be taken away from us. Never. It’s a wishful thinking of the Punjab CM", asserted SAI secretary Dr B K Sinha, without mincing words. "We have invested crores to make it a world-class training centre. Who will compensate us for the crores we have spent to create the sports infrastructure there? Where will we take them out?," Dr Sinha wondered. He also wanted to know
whether the State Government was looking into the functioning of
all Central-funded schemes and institutions in Punjab, and asking for
an inventory. The documents in the possession of the SAI clearly
establishes its claim on the Motibagh Palace complex, which was sold
to the Punjab Government by the late "Maharajadiraj Mahendra
Bahadur of Patiala" Yadavindra Singh on March 8, 1958. But the
deed was signed between And the Punjab Government, in turn, signed an agreement with the Central Government in March 1960 for the transfer of the Motibagh Palace complex though the sale deed was completed only in March 1978, for a sum of Rs 27.50 lakh. After the transfer of the property to the Centre, the National Institute of Sports (NIS) was set up there, and later the SNIPES, the fore-runner of the SAI, to widen the scope of the NIS by including the Delhi Centre also under its span. The SAI was constituted after the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi, and the NIS Patiala was transferred to SAI in March, 1988. "The Punjab Government should verify the legal status of the sale deed. I don’t think they have any claim on NIS Patiala", Dr Sinha argued.
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Pressed for space
SUGGESTIONS of national sports activities being shifted to Bangalore in case the NIS, Patiala, becomes a defence university as is being touted by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh are met with preposterous stares here. Sportspersons in Punjab may think the importance of the NIS has been diluted over the years but their counterparts here don’t think the NIS, Bangalore, can step in to fill the vacuum in case the defence university idea does become a reality.The reasons are there for all to see. The NIS, Bangalore is situated on an 87- acre campus in Kingeri township on the outskirts of the city as compared to the 360-acre campus at Patiala. There isn’t much scope of expansion as no space is available for the same while the Patiala centre can be still expanded, in case of any further need, by including the agricultural land available for acquisition near the institute. The institute here is small because it was meant to cater to particular sports disciplines in which players from South India traditionally excel in. It was established a few years after the Asian Games in 1982 withSoviet help. The Soviets even lent 10 coaches and an equal number of scientists to provide the necessary technical fillip. Things have not changed much at the Institute with senior sports officials and scientists now occupying the same quarters built for the Soviets which are aptly still referred to as "Russian flats". One may quail at the lack of expansion of the Patiala centre but the same is true of the Bangalore one. It started off running diploma courses in athletics, hockey, volleyball and swimming and is still doing the same with only courses being added in kho-kho and kabaddi when another center was unable to run the same. It is a centre for excellence in volleyball, kho-kho, weightlifting, badminton, kabaddi and athletics. In athletics it primarily concentrates on sprints and jumps. As far as national camps are concerned, the Bangalore centre’s track record is also not as good as Patiala. At Bangalore regular camps are often limited to volleyball only while in Patiala camps for judo, weightlifting, wrestling, boxing, athletics and handball are being held regularly. Even in terms of infrastructure the Bangalore centre is just not equipped to handle more disciplines. Patiala has five indoor halls, Bangalore has two. There is no squash court in Bangalore, there are two in Patiala. The Patiala centre has four hockey grounds, the Bangalore centre has two (one grass, the other synthetic). The Bangalore centre, unlike Patiala, does not have any cricket ground or handball courts. Even in sports academics, the Bangalore centre is running diploma courses in five disciplines as compared to 19 disciplines being catered to at the NIS, Patiala. There is a shortage of hostel facilities also with the NIS, Bangalore, being able to take on around 140 sports persons compared to around 500 by the Patiala centre. There are practical
problems also. Even though the Bangalore institute is a centre for
excellence in athletics, it does not have any facility for high
altitude training. The NIS, Patiala has its own high-altitude centre
at Shillaroo in Himachal Pradesh where SAI has invested crores to give
training to athletes in the summer months. With summer temperatures
rising in summer even in the once airconditioned city as Bangalore was
known as earlier, the Shillaroo centre is one which SAI can ill afford
to under use. |
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