Low blow by the Sports Ministry

So, in their twisted logic, the ministry has — since January — stopped their salaries as a way of forcing the federations to toe the line.

However, the officials continued to receive their salaries all this time because of the system of reimbursement: the federations would pay the officials and be reimbursed by the government. Since January the government has stopped reimbursement, and it’s only a matter of time before the federations run out of money to pay those whom they don’t even employ. Explaining the ministry’s stand, Sports Secretary Meenakshi Chaudhary said today: ‘‘We have been pursuing the case for three months but they haven’t got back to us. Questions regarding arrears have even been raised in the Parliament. Federations are funded by us and the assistant secretaries get the salary from us so we have taken this step.’’

Wouldn’t it have been better to have pursued the matter with the federation big bosses? ‘‘We will be doing that in due course,’’ she says.

Sources say the ministry is preparing a letter detailing the ministry’s demands in lieu of restoring the salary payment. These reportedly include details of the election process of each federations and an ‘‘all dues cleared’’ certificate from the assistant secretaries to get their salaries from the government.

One assistant secretary, speaking on condition of anonymity, said these things were beyond their powers. ‘‘We are caught in this big fight. We don’t have the powers to move even a paper without informing the all-powerful federations heads, so how can we force them to pay up?’’

‘‘The government is mixing issues’’, says K Murugan, secretary general of the Volleyball Federation of India. ‘‘If the government has any problems about the payment of rents they should ask us to vacate the premises, such an act wouldn’t take us anywhere.’’