“I will not wait beyond July 25. We have called for a meeting with HI and IHF on July 25. A decision would certainly come out by then,” Sports Minister Ajay Maken said in a press conference here.
“We are calling the two bodies to give it a last try on merger but this will be the last meeting. If nothing comes out of it then we will take a decision on our own and inform the Supreme Court,” he said.
Asked about the reason why the last merger talks had failed, Maken said, “I was really hopeful that the merger would be successful. Unfortunately, it seems that inflated egos taken over the national interest and the national game,” said Maken.
The merger talks between HI and IHF fell apart last week, following a series of meetings in the presence of sports ministry officials.
Maken informed that the ministry is giving the two warring bodies a last chance after IHF President R K Shetty had spoken and written to the Ministry again to discuss some of the finer points.
NIS de-merged from SAI
The country’s premier sports institute, NIS Patiala, has been de-merged from the Sports Authority of India in the wake of the athletics doping scandal, Maken announced.
Maken said NIS Patiala will now be made an autonomous ‘Institution of National Importance’ with the aim to produce better home coaches and thereby reducing the dependence on foreign experts like Ukrainian Yuri Ogorodnik, six of whose wards were caught for doping.
“We have decided to demerge National Institute of Sports Patiala from SAI and make it an Institution of National Importance. The primary role for NIS would be producing world-class and qualified coaches for various sporting disciplines.”
