Troubles are far from over for pugilists in the country. An ad-hoc committee was formed by Indian Olympic Association to look into governing of Indian boxing. It will replaces the de-recognised Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF), till a new body is put in place.
With this move, Indian boxers will be able to take part in international events but what about the changes in the running of the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) which was for long being run by just one person — Abhey Singh Chautala?
IABF was provisionally suspended by the ministry in December 2012. The ministry had asked the association to hold fresh elections and make its constitution compliant with the National Sports Code. But when nothing happened then, International boxing body derecognised it and so on by the Sports Ministry recently.
This prompted many to believe that time has come to clean up the system and some of the boxers to stand up alongside former secretary Muralitharan Raja. However, Thursday's AIBA approval for this ad hoc committee has come as a big jolt to Raja and his group, which also apparently included Vijender Singh and MC Mary Kom.
The six-member ad hoc committee will be headed by senior IOA official Tarlochan Singh and, senior National coach G.S. Sandhu has also been included in this. The other committee members are India's representative at the AIBA Kishan Narsi, Rakesh Gupta, Kuldip Vats and Mehtab Singh.
In IOA's first Executive Council meeting on Thursday, after the lifting of suspension by the International Olympic Committee, under the chairmanship of N. Ramachandran, India's representative at AIBA was also made part of the Committee.
"The committee has been approved by the AIBA and it will be handling all issues like coaching, selection, etc. Since we do not want the boxers to suffer we have formed this committee," said Ramachandran in his first address.
The EC meeting was attended by 19 out of the 25 members, including IOA senior vice-president Virendra D. Nanavati, IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta and IOA treasurer Anil Khanna.
It must be mentioned here that Ramachandran group is part of the Chautala-Bhanot camp which was barred from contesting elections due to the taint.
"Whenever IABF forms a body, it will apply to the IOA for recognition and as per the Olympic Charter, we will have to give recognition. But that is some time away. AIBA's recognition has to come first," IOA president added.
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