State body secretary claims DFA secretary wanted Satish K Shukla to be president The power struggle in the District Football Association has turned murkier. On Thursday,DFA secretary Kanhaiyya Lal put up a show of strength in front of the media along with DFA executive body members claiming that ON Puri who was elected in the 2002 DFA elections was still the president and not Satish K Shukla. Interestingly,all along the District Football League which was in progress at Dilkusha grounds here till recently,the DFA secretary had been alleging that DFA president Shukla was trying to sideline him and now all of a sudden he is saying that Puri is the president while Shukla is just the secretary of a football club. Presently,the football league has been discontinued after acts of violence last week. When The Indian Express contacted Uttar Pradesh Football Sangh secretary M Shamsuddin,he informed,Kanhaiyya Lal himself is responsible for the removal of Puri from the post of the president. About three to four years back,Kanhaiyya had come to me and said that as Puri was not being able to give much of a time to the DFA,therefore,Shukla should be made the president. I will have to check the records to confirm whether Puri had also sent something in writing. Both Kanhaiyya and Shukla had brought about eight to ten members each and they all wanted Shukla to become president. I have been asking the Lucknow unit to organise elections which are long pending but they have not been organised yet. Shamsuddin said that the UP body had taken the acts of violence which have taken place during the District Football League very seriously. We are enquiring the details and we plan to take action against the guilty. Such acts are doing harm to the game of football, he further added. Regarding the news of Kanhaiyyas suspension,Shamsuddin said that the decision must have been taken by the district body and he was yet to get anything in writing in that regard. Kanhaiyya said that the Satish Shukla had no right to suspend him as the latter was just the organising secretary of a District Football League and not the DFA president. He is just secretary of Eleven Star Club and our executive body has decided to suspend him for causing unrest between teams as he only supports the Cantt. teams and ignores the teams which were included after I also took part in the fixture making process and the revised fixtures were announced. As elections were not held after 2002,therefore,Puri still continues to be the president, he said. He denied that he had ever supported Shukla to become the president and said that he had never given any such thing in writing to the state body. Satish Shukla,however,contested that why Kanhaiyya Lal was silent when all the paper work during the District Football League was happening mentioning his name as president DFA. I have suspended DFA secretary as last week he instigated an entire team when he had come along with his supporters. He even slapped the player of a team during the New Boys vs TGFC match, he alleged. With allegations and counter allegations becoming the order of the day in the DFA,it is only football which is suffering. Camp for special athletes concludesThe week-long national level coaching camp for special athletes concluded at AMC Stadium,Lucknow Cantonment on Thursday. Students of Study Hall presented an impressive dance item during the closing function. About 260 mentally challenged athletes had taken part in the camp which was organised by Special Olympics Bharat,UP. The Sports Authority of India had supporting the initiative. Army personnel gave a great deal of assistance to the organisers to make the camp a happy experience for the special athletes.
