A parliamentary standing committee has come down heavily on the Sports Authority of India (SAI) over the disparity in pay cheques and treatment of sportspersons as regular staff members assigned with routine administrative work.
The issue came up before the panel headed by Satyanarayan Jatiya after its members visited a SAI regional centre in Bengaluru and interacted with sports officials and prominent sportspersons like Anju Bobby George and Ashwini Nachappa. The committee expressed dismay over the functioning of sports administration in the country.
The committee members were surprised to hear that while the coaches did not get leave for coaching assignments, the sportspersons were not given promotions or dearness allowance for attending camps. George, an internationally known athlete, even submitted a representation, which was extensively quoted by the panel in its report tabled in the Parliament earlier this month.
Even the Department of Personnel and Training has corroborated the fact that sportspersons are being made to do the routine work.
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