Surat PT teacher ducks creditors as dues pile up for Khel Maha Kumbh

With all the arrangements done on credit,so far only Rs 2.88 lakh have been cleared by his seniors.

Atodaria was not aware that the rest of the funds were to be arranged from the private donors,and now hopes for the district collector’s intervention.

Atodaria said he had repeatedly written to the mamlatdar,taluka development officer and district collector to clear the remaining dues,but nothing has happened so far.

With the mamlatdar and the TDO being transferred,Atodaria said he had to make fresh representations.

Atodaria said,“It cost us Rs 5.67 lakh to organise this event,while Rs 2.88 lakh were cleared,the rest is remaining. We took the matter with the Sports Authority of Gujarat officials and now we hope the district collector would help us out in this issue.’’

Meanwhile,the Surat district Sports officer Virendra Patel clarified,“The state government had allotted only Rs 5,000 and remaining expenses had to be borne through private donors as Khel Maha Kumbh 2010 was organised under Public Private Partnership model. When the event was organised,not a single officer in the government machinery knew that only Rs 5000 would be given by the state government.”

“The conveners might have thought that government will give them money but they are wrong. Praveen met us and we are aware of his pending dues,we knew he was right. We have also put up this issue before Surat district collector A J Shah just two days ago,” he added.

Surat District Collector A J Shah said,“I am aware about the issue and we will discuss it.”

Dipesh Maharaj of Mandvi,who had provided the meals during the month-long sports fest to participants said, “We submitted a bill of Rs 1.96 lakh to the mamlatdar and out of this we have got Rs 50,000 till now. Our dues are pending and we only know Atodaria and as per his instruction we were ready to cook food.”

Maharaj added: “We have made representations to the government officials many times but nobody is listening to us. Atodaria is responsible for this and we will take money from him.”

Atodaria was the convenor for the Khel Maha Kumbah at the taluka level which was held from November 22,2010 to December 15,2010,with 11,062 participants.

Competitions for different games like Kho Kho,Kabbadi,Skating,Volleyball,Athletics,etc was carried out at taluka level in Mandvi taluka of Surat district,where Antodaria had to identify the sportsmen and encourage them to participate in the fest.