The government's bid to limit the tenure of sports administrators met with stiff resistance on Monday, with Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi and other angry bosses of sports bodies vowing to do everything to protect their autonomy.
In a bid to crack down on National Sports Federation (NSF) heads who have been occupying the posts for too long, the Sports Ministry on Sunday said NSF chiefs in office for more than a decade will have to step down after their current term expires.
Unfazed by the protests staged against him today by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists in Pune, scam-tainted Congress leader and local Member of Parliament Suresh Kalmadi has expressed his 'resolve' to continue working for the development of the city, while claiming that he was "innocent" in the Commonwealth Games-related graft case.
Instead, the AICC made it clear that it was neither their brief nor their intention to defend Suresh Kalmadi since he is the chairman of the organising committee by virtue of heading the Indian Olympic Association and not because he is a Congress MP. The AICC spokesman agreed that the expenditure being incurred on the games was excessive and said it is for Kalmadi to do the explanation.
Even as Suresh Kalmadi continues to be in the eye of the storm and is continuing to battle charges of corruption, sources say that the government and the Congress party are looking at two options and weighing the pros and cons of implementing them in a bid to save the games as well as protect the government from further bad publicity on issues of corruption.
The IOA president sought to know if enough security was being provided to the Indian athletes for the SAF Games.
The IOA president said Pillay's experience could improve the medal chances of the eight-time Olympic hockey champions.
The government on Friday sought to drag in the National Democratic Alliance regime into the Commonwealth Games mess.
It is official now: VIP prisoners do get VIP treatment inside Tihar Jail.
Asserting that merely removing Suresh Kalmadi as chief of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee will not serve the purpose till all those found guilty are punished The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday demanded fast tracking of probe into irregularities committed in preparations for the Commonwealth Games.
Amid intense criticism over Commonwealth Games preparations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a meeting with union ministers and others involved in the sporting event but kept away Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi, triggering speculation about his being sidelined.
Can the Central Bureau of Investigation prove that jailed Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi has dementia?
Tainted Commonwealth Games official, Rajkumar Sacheti has been appointed as 'advisor' for this year's Lusofonia Games by the Goa government, leading to the resignation of the Organising Committee chairman.
Commonwealth Games Organising Committee official M Jayachandran, arrested for alleged financial bungling in holding the Queen Baton's Relay (QBR) in London in 2009, was granted bail by the Delhi high court on Wednesday. Justice Hima Kohli granted bail to Jayachandran, a key aide of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi following the CBI's failure to wind up the probe and file the charge sheet in the case within the stipulated 60-day period.
Commonwealth Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalamdi was on Wednesday questioned by the CBI in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the conduct of the sports event.
It was a day of embarrassment for the Congress-lead United Progressive Alliance as Suresh Kalmadi, the Congress member of Parliament from Pune and the former chairman of the Commonwealth Games was arrested for alleged conspiracy in awarding a contract for the Games to a Swiss company at an inflated cost of Rs. 141 crore.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and Tarun Vijay on Friday rejected the government theory that the Central Bureau of Investigation raids on Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee is a natural culmination of unearthing the corruption in staging the gala Games.
Rejecting suggestions that the government has clipped his wings by appointing a committee of bureaucrats, Commonwealth Games Organising Committee's embattled Chairman Suresh Kalmadi insisted that he is still the boss and the panel was instituted on his request.
Our boys got the Olympic medals -- two bronzes and one gold -- not because of the IOA but in spite of them. The boxers and the wrestlers coped with official apathy, non-release of funds meant for their preparations to go to Beijing Olympics; for the boxers, only some 35 per cent was released of the Rs 1 cr granted. Bindra had his father to thank for because he was gifted a world-class firing range on his own farm to practice in
The Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed the bail plea of former Commomwealth Games Organising Committee Secretary General Lalit Bhanot, accused of favouring a Swiss firm in a contract that led to a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer.
Sacked Chairman of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi is likely to be questioned by CBI on Wednesday in connection with Queen's Baton Relay scam after the agency received fresh papers from the UK.
Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi on Tuesday ruled out giving any monetary assistance to the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) in paying the US$ 375,000 fine to the game's world body because it is related to doping.
A Congress member in Public Accounts Committee on Friday suggested calling former head of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi before the Parliamentary panel examining CAG report on games irregularities, but its chairman and BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi seemed disinclined.
The CBI on Monday carried out searches at 11 premises, including residences of four aides of Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi, in connection with alleged irregularities in a Rs 107 crore contract for the Games result update system and registered cases against them.
Even as Suresh Kalmadi continues to be in the eye of a storm and battles charges of corruption, sources say the government and his party are looking at two options in a bid to save the Commonwealth Games and protect the government from further bad publicity on issues of corruption.
For a man, who used to make everything a showbiz, his birthday this year was an occasion that was probably only known to CBI sleuths around him. He is also believed to have spent some time with a few family members.
T S Darbari, a close associate of the CWG organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi, was granted bail by the Delhi High Court after the Central Bureau of Investigation failed to file the chargesheet against him for alleged bunglings in the Queen Baton's relay in London in 2009.
Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi on Thursday said he is happy with the progress made in the Games Village as it got ready to welcome the first of the 7000 athletes and team officials who will reside there during the mega-event.
Clean Sports India (CSI), a movement for corruption-free sports in the country, on Friday, expressed disappointment at Delhi court's decision to allow sacked CWG Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi, accused in a Games-related graft case, to go to the London Olympics.
As the bid will open in 2011, Kalmadi said the IOA would begin its preparation for the bid immediately after the 2010 Commonwealth Games were over.
The Congress last week hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his criticism of then PM Indira Gandhi's decision to use the Indian Air Force in Mizoram in 1966, saying he "twisted decisions" taken by his predecessors out of their political and historical context to score "petty debating points".
Sacked CWG Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi claimed that the CBI officers, who conducted searches at his premises in the city recently, did not find anything incriminating against him.
The host for the 2010 Games will be named on November 13 in Jamaica.
The 67-year-old MP from Pune, who arrived at around 10 am on Monday, was admitted to the cardio neuro-sciences department of the hospital in a private ward.
'These three wrestlers (Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik) are indirectly or directly part of the Congress.'
Senior sports administrator Anil Khanna on Wednesday quit as acting president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), almost two weeks after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to recognise any "acting/interim president".
The news of Lalit Bhanot and V K Verma's arrest has rattled Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi, who was chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. A close aide of Kalmadi confirmed that he is in touch with legal luminaries to chalk out the next course of action fearing also being arrested.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has promised financial help to Tejaswini Sawant, the first Indian woman shooter to clinch a gold medal at the World Championships.
Simply in no mood to oblige the Organising Committee, Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) on Friday made it clear that it would neither remove CGF chief executive Mike Hooper nor would backtrack on its plan to have a Technical Review Panel to monitor preparations for the 2010 Games. CGF president Michael Fennell advised the Games Organising Committee (OC) to focus more on the work at hand, rather than seeking someone's removal.
Majority of the Indian Olympic Association's top brass was unreachable after the Sports Ministry decided to suspend the national Olympic body for appointing the scam-tainted Suresh Kalmadi and Abhay Singh Chautala as its life-presidents.
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