Dharamsala has lost the opportunity to host the North Zone Athletics Meet. Sources say that the National Athletics Association had proposed to hold the championship at Dharamsala from October 7 to 9.
Events like races in the 100 metre and 800 metre, medium and long distance categories were to be organised in the championship. Besides, long jump, high jump and javelin throw competitions were also to be held. More than 400 players from seven states were scheduled to come to Dharamsala for the meet.
Now, the National Athletics Association has shifted the event to New Delhi. The sources say that the association has shifted the tournament from Dharamsala to New Delhi as the Himachal Pradesh Athletics Association has failed to generate resources for holding the championship. The national and state level associations also blame the state Sports Department for not extending any help to the event.
National vice-president of the National Athletics Association Suman Rawat, who belongs to Himachal, says that it is unfortunate that Himachal has lost the opportunity to host the North Zone Athletics Meet. “We have worked hard to bring the event to Dharamsala. However, we did not get any support from the Sports Department of the state. Our people approached Sports Department officials but they refused to extend any help, including providing some basic equipment lying in their offices,” she adds.
The BJP has blamed the Congress government for the shifting of the tournament. State BJP spokesperson Sanjay Sharma says that the previous BJP government had brought a synthetic track to Dharamsala for holding athletics tourneys. The synthetic track was also recommended for high altitude training for athletes. It is unfortunate that the state government has failed to support the HP Athletics Association in hosting the North Zone Athletics Meet at Dharamsala,” he adds.
Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Yadwinder Goma says that nobody had approached him for financial support for organising the North Zone Athletics Meet. Had they approached me, the government would have definitely helped the HP Athletics Association to host the event at Dharamsala,” he adds.
Sources in the HP Athletics Association say that it used to get an annual grant of about Rs 50,000 from the government but got no money in the past five years. Successive governments had talked about making Dharamsala a sports centre for holding national and international meets, but except cricket matches hardly any event had been held here. The proposals to set up a Sania Nehwal badminton academy, high-altitude training centre and a shooting academy here are yet to take shape.
No ~50K grant-in-aid for past five yrs
The National Athletics Association has shifted the event to Delhi from Dharamsala as the HP Athletics Association failed to generate resources for holding the championship
The BJP has blamed the Congress government for the shifting of the tournament
Sources say the HP Athletics Association used to get an annual grant of ~50,000 from the state government but got no money in past five years
