M A I N   N E W S

Give IWF loan to pay dope fine, OC told
MS Unnikrishnan
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 24
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has directed the organising committee of the 2010 Commonwealth Games to give an "interest free loan" of Rs 1.75 crore to the Weightlifting Federation of India (WFI) to enable it to pay the balance amount of penalty to the International Weightlifting Federation, which has slapped a fine of $5, 00,000 on the WFI “for violation of anti-doping rules by Indian players in the month of November, 2009”.

In a four-page letter to Chief Executive Officer of the OC, Jarnail Singh, joint-secretary in the ministry, Injeti Srinivas, wrote today that the “Sports Minister's top priority was to safeguard the interest of the Indian weightlifters and to ensure that they get participation in the CWG and other international competitions”.

However, in the past one month, the Sports Ministry had written twice to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), requesting it to "exert pressure" on the International Weightlifting Federation, through the International Olympic Committee (IOC), "to reduce this exorbitant and unreasonably high penalty to ensure the participation of the Indian weightlifters in the CWG".

The matter was also taken up with Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Mike Fennell last week when he met Sports Minister MS Gill. This was followed up with a written request to the IOA, the IOC and Fennell, to take up the matter with the international body.

The ministry noted that the new set of office-bearers of the WFI was elected in the elections conducted on December 27, 2009 following the resignation of the earlier set of officials owning up moral responsibility for the doping incident, which led to the imposition of the massive fine on the WFI.

The WFI was asked to deposit the fines in four instalments of $50,000 (before January 28, 2010), $75,000 (before April 4, 2010), $1, 00,000 (before July 15, 2010) and $2, 75,000 (before August 15, 2010).

The WFI has so far paid $125,000 in two instalments to the international body, which had refused to allow the Indian teams to participate in the South Asian Games held in Dhaka in January 2010, without payment of the first instalment of the fine.

The ministry told the OC that the prohibitive fine was “ten times more than the annual budget of the WFI” and none of the 15 players selected for the present national team was guilty of any doping offence.