P T Usha, Gopichand in IOA’s new advisory panel

Mangalore Today/ ITV

New Delhi, Dec 6: The newly-elected executive council of the Indian Olympic Association on Thursday constituted a three-member advisory panel to guide the office bearers on the problems faced by the athletes, besides forming a nine-member Athletes Commission to oversee the needs of the players.
The three-member advisory panel includes P T Usha, P Gopichand and Dilip Tirkey.

The General Body also discussed the International Olympic Council’s statement that the elections were null and void and wished to clarify that the polls took place with a well laid-out procedure.

 

“The elections were conducted under the guidance of a three-member Election Commission comprising Retired Chief Justice Anil Dev Singh, Justice V K Bali and Justice J D Kappor and even the Union Government had sent its observer Joy Sebastian to oversee the election process,” the IOA said in a statement.

“Even the members of the media were present at the venue in large numbers and it only proves that the election were held in free and fair manner and also with the approval of all the stakeholders party to the Indian Olympic Association in India,” it added.

Abhay Singh Chautala on Wednesday took over as the President of the IOA while the tainted Lalit Bhanot became the secretary general after the sports body conducted its controversial elections defying the IOC’s directive not to go ahead with the polls. Chautala and Bhanot were declared elected unopposed.

Athletes’ commission:

Chairman: Gurbachan Singh Randhawa — Athletics

Members: Wilson Cherian — Swimming

K Malleswari— Weighlifting

Manjit Dua— Table Tennis

Jatinder Singh— Boxing

Aparna Popat— Badminton

Anuj Kumar— Wrestling

Lawn tennis and Archery will nominate their members soon.



IOA holds AGM, elections despite IOC suspension


New Delhi, Dec 5: Defying the ban imposed by the International Olympic Committee, the IOA on Wednesday went ahead with its Annual General Meeting and elections, insisting that it had not done anything wrong.
“The house unanimously decided that we did not do anything wrong by going ahead with the election process.

 

We had already communicated to the IOC that the IOA will have to go ahead with the elections under the sports code because of the Delhi High Court order,” IOA acting President V K Malhotra told reporters on the sidelines of the AGM here.

“In spite of this the IOC decided to suspend us, but we will try our level best to get the suspension revoked as soon as possible,” he said after the meeting which lasted just over an hour.

“About 85 per cent of the sports federations and state Olympic committees were present in the AGM. And it was a unanimous decision,” he said.

Mr Malhotra said the IOA has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention in the matter.