Team Anna, Roy back govt on sports bill

Sports minister Ajay Maken has got support of both Team Anna and Aruna Roy's NCPRI to his draft national sports development bill even though the two groups had vehemently opposed the govt’s Lokpal Bill. Chetan Chauhan reports. Why is BCCI shying away from RTI? | 'We stand united on Sports Bill'

Updated on: Nov 19, 2011, 01:51:01 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Sports minister Ajay Maken has got support of both Team Anna and Aruna Roy’s National Campaign for People’s Right To Information (NCPRI) to his draft national sports development bill even though the two groups had vehemently opposed the government’s Lokpal Bill.

The reason for their support is apparent - government’s intention to bring Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) under an independent regulatory mechanism to ensure transparency in its functioning.

“We welcome the thrust on ensuring transparency and accountability in the bill,” said a statement signed by civil society activists including National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy and prominent Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan.

Salient features of National Sports Bill

Retirement age for members of national sports bodies as 70 years

25% reservation in sports bodies for sportspersons

Mandatory compliance with Right To Information Act

Setting up of Sports Ombudsman for settling disputes

Mandatory compliance with National Anti-Doping Code

National code for prevention of age fraud

To ensure transparency in BCCI and other national sports federations, the sports ministry has made compliance with most provisions of the Right To Information (RTI) law must for federations receiving substantial direct or indirect support from the government.

Why is BCCI shying away from RTI?

But, the RTI clause in the draft bill had irked the BCCI, the country’s richest sports body, which described it as “unconstitutional”. BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale went to the extent to saying that sports was a state subject and the legislative competence of central government was limited. “The bill tends to encroach upon fundamental rights of sports bodies," Jagdale had said, in response to the sports bill.

To remove any ambiguity on whether BCCI receives substantial government support or not, the civil society wants that definition of financial funding to be extended to cover use of facilities free or at non-commercial rates and even allocation of land at subsidized rates.

Most of the cricket stadiums in India have been built on subsidized land provided by the government, for which BCCI pays petty annual rental. The annual rental for Ferozshah Stadium in Delhi is just a few thousand rupees.

“The sports ministry makes it conditional for sports body to accept the fact that it has been substantially financed by the government for any purposes of any law in for the time being in force,” the statement read.

The statement issued under the banner of NCPRI also suggested that the ministry should place a pre-condition of unconditional access to information regarding any issue of public interest at the time of registration or recognition of any sports body.

'We stand united on Sports Bill'

However, NCPRI has asked the ministry to delete chapter 8 of the bill, which prescribes specific exemptions to disclosure of information under the RTI Act. The exemptions include information regarding team selection, injury to a player and report of dope tests. “We believe that specific exemptions contained in this chapter are unnecessary…as issues like health of a player are already exempted from the purview of the RTI Act,” the statement said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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