Ministry issues notice to AFI

New Delhi: Three days after de-recognising two federations, Sports Ministry on Monday issued a notice to the Athletic Federation of India to remove a few contentious clauses from its constitution and hold re-elections for the post of president and secretary.

Taking a tough stand on the National Sports Federations ever since the International Olympic Committee suspended the IOA, the Ministry shot off a letter to the AFI drawing its attention to the clauses and warned of taking action if those were not rectified. The development triggered off speculations that the AFI could be the next federation to be de-recognised after the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) and the Archery Association of India (AAI). The sports secretary Pradip Deb said that the Ministry has advised the AFI to remove a few restrictive clauses and re-hold elections only for the post of the president and secretary. "There will be no de-recognition as of today," Deb told PTI. "Only thing we have found, there is a clause in the constitution of the AFI that is in conflict with only the post of the president and secretary. So, we have advised the AFI to remove the restricted clause and hold the elections only for these two posts. Everything else is fine," he added. Deb also said that it is wrong to assume that the Sports Ministry is on a spree to suspend Federations. "Just because we have de-recognised IABF and AAI, it is not right to think that we are here to suspend the federations. We have only made some recommendations," Deb insisted. The Sports Minister, Jitendra Singh also said that there has been no ban imposed so far on the AFI. "As of now there is no ban imposed (on AFI). We are looking at all the Federations which are not following the sports code. The process is going on. Those who are not following the code, ban could be imposed on them," said Singh. Sports Ministry had recently de-recognised both Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) and the Archery Association of India (AAI). While AAI was de recognised for "violating the age and tenure guidelines" of the government`s sports code during its elections last month, IABF`s election process was "flawed and faulty" according to the Sports Ministry. The de-recognitions of AAI and IABF by the government came just three days after the International Olympic Committee has suspended Indian Olympic Association for not following the Olympic Charter during its recent elections. PTI