March-past by barefoot Malda children at the state sports meet in Malda on Thursday. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Feb. 12: The chaotic manner in which the state school sports was inaugurated today left many asking questions. Also, the fact that the Malda schools contingent had turned up unshod and in mismatched track suits was heavily criticised.

While teams from other districts turned up in matching track shoes and even blazers, the children of Malda team were standing barefoot.

The secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission here, Swami Dibyananda Maharaj, said he was surprised to see the children without shoes. “I was surprised. I had proposed to the local MLAs to see to it that the children were provided with white keds,” he said.

“This is a shame for our district; how could the organisers put up a team in the state school games in this way?” asked CPM MLA, Subhendu Chowdhury. Even minister Sailen Sarkar expressed his dissatisfaction over the issue. “This should not have happened,” he said.

While district magistrate Sridhar Ghosh said he had not noticed the barefoot children, the chairman of the school education council, Uttam Sarkar, apologised for the slip.

The joint secretary of the organising committee, Sadhan Pal, said shoes and track suits and blazers had been procured for the Malda team. “I do not know why they did not wear them,” he said.

In any case, the inaugural session was full of glitches and there was total confusion over the holding of the ceremony. With ministers, MLAs, and other dignitaries present on the dais, the children were made to stand at the district sports association grounds from 9am. However, school education minister Partha De, and sports minister Subhas Chakrabarty, were both no-shows and the inauguration was done by Sailen Sarkar. The programme that was scheduled to begin at 1pm was delayed for about one hour.

The secretary of the school inspectors’ association, Ashok Kumar Mondol, said no circulars had been issued clarifying whether or not schools would be open today. (Many schools were open today)

A leader of the RSP-dominated teachers’ association, Tapan Chaki, said there were 16 committees that had been formed to conduct the games. “The schools and the teachers had also donated for the event, the budget of which was pegged at over Rs 40 lakh. Pigeons were supposed to be released and but they were not. All shortcomings point to the fact that Malda is ill-equipped to conduct such an event,” he said.