New Delhi, Aug. 30: The National Sports Development Bill, which promised to keep sporting federations free from rut and ensure transparency, has fallen through.
The cabinet has asked the sports ministry to remove the “intrusive” provisions in the bill. The bill will be presented again in the cabinet after it is reframed by the sports ministry.
At least six senior ministers raised objections against the bill, including Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah.
Several cabinet ministers, who themselves head different sporting federations, expressed concern about the age limit of the federation chiefs and government control. The bill had proposed an age limit of 70 years for the heads of various federations. Reportedly, both heavy industries minister Praful Patel and Farooq Abdullah were against this clause.
Patel, also president of the All India Football Federation, reportedly went on to say that if such a clause is not applicable to the cabinet room, then how could it be applicable to the sports federations. Abdullah heads the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association.
Sharad Pawar, president of the International Cricket Council, also raised his voice against the bill. Although he did not have any specific objections, he said the bill was “holistically” not right. Pawar indicated during the cabinet meeting that the bill could pose a possible strain in the Nationalist Congress Party’s relations with the Congress.
One of the sharpest reservations has been raised against the provision of “Long Term Development Plan”. The provision is merely for the federations to spell out their goals for the next four years before they get any grant from the government. Incidentally, this practice is already in place.
HRD minister Kapil Sibal, who has been in the eye of a storm because of his role in the alleged mishandling of the Anna Hazare saga, raised a red flag. He reportedly told the cabinet that “the present political atmosphere is not too conducive for clearing the decks for such a bill”.
The bill also has provisions for making all federations answerable to the public through the RTI Act. The sports ministry has said that at least Rs 459 crore had been spent in the last three years on all the 29 federations put together. Since the government’s money is invested in the federations, they can be treated on a par with public authority. Even federations like the BCCI, which may not receive direct financial aid from the government, get several indirect benefits, the ministry has contended.
“The federations get land at concessional rates and exemption in tax and customs duty. This money is a loss to the government exchequer so in an indirect way the federations are getting aid,” said a sports ministry official.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P. Chidambaram supported the bill. According to sources, the Prime Minister said the bill may be “too intrusive” or too ambitious, but it has many positive features and would bring in efficiency in sports.
Sports ministry officials are happy with the cabinet decision. There were suggestions from the cabinet to either defer the bill, which would have meant untimely death for the legislation, or to form a group of ministers to thrash out the provision.
The next window of opportunity for the sports ministry to get the bill cleared is the winter session.
