Mansukh Mandaviya to meet para-shooters protesting Para-Asian Games selection
Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will meet para-shooters here on Friday after they staged demonstrations alleging corruption and manipulation in the selection process for the upcoming Para Asian Games. The Games will be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan from October 18 to 24.
The shooters protested at the Sports Authority of India headquarters and maintained their demonstration at the send-off ceremony for Games-bound para-athletes on Thursday. The Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) has rejected the charges and insisted that the team was picked entirely on merit. In a representation to the Director General of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Wednesday, the shooters alleged "illicit monetary extortion, brazen corruption" and violations of Sports Ministry's guidelines by PCI officials and its Shooting Technical Committee (STC) in selections for the Aichi-Nagoya Games.
A well-placed Ministry source said: "There seem to be a lot of institutional problems in how para-shooting is being run right now. It is not merely about the Asian Games. The minister will meet them to try and resolve the issues raised by them, including that of corruption."
The representation accused officials of pressuring athletes to pay a 20 per cent commission from government cash awards as a precondition for selection and of manipulating international quota places and qualifying scores to favour certain shooters. It also alleged that the selection committee discarded prescribed Ministry criteria, manipulated qualifying scores and replaced an earlier selection panel without recorded justification.
Separately, six para-cyclists who were omitted from the contingent for failing to meet the selection criteria held a protest at the SAI headquarters this afternoon. However, it is unlikely to cause any major upheaval as the final entries have already been submitted. Paralympian Arshad Shaik is the only cyclist to receive Ministry's approval for the Games; he finished fourth among nine athletes at the Asian Para Road Championships this year and was fifth in the eight-strong Asian Para Track Championship's 1km time trial event.
"Little can be done now to make any changes to the contingent. But these are very serious charges and cannot be simply rejected without a thorough understanding of what's going on," the source said, underscoring that the scheduled meeting on Friday is intended to address the allegations.