In a setback to Indian Olympic Association (IOA)’s plans to bid for the 2019 Asian Games, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has given them only a couple of days to furnish all the guarantees, if their bid is to be considered. The deadline to submit the bid documents ended on Tuesday and the IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta had sought additional time from the OCA to get several guarantees from the Centre. But in a letter dated July 2, that was addressed to Mehta, the OCA director general Husain Al Musallam, stated that "due to the extreme shortage of time it is impossible for the OCA to extend the deadline any further." “Within this two-month period we need to establish the evaluation team that will visit the bidding cities and submit its report to the OCA Executive Body on September 19. “However if you are able to still submit the guarantees within the next couple of days OCA is willing to consider IOAs bid very positively,” he wrote. OCA had last month explained what guarantees it needs in order to consider India’s bid. Those are: Letter from the chief minister or Lt Governor of Delhi supporting the bid, letter from the Minister of Sports, Cabinet approval, letter of support from the leader of the majority party, letter of support from the leader of the opposition, letter of guarantee on tax exemption of marketing/games revenue, letter of assurance on waiver of customs duties etc. With time running out, Mehta contented that a cabinet clearance will at least give them a chance. “We have two days to do it. It is tough task to accomplish. We are given to understand that if our cabinet gives us the go ahead, OCA will give us more time for other paperwork. We have been trying to fix a meeting with prime minister Narendra Modi, only he can help us now. We have been told he is very busy, whatever happens we will give it a shot,” Mehta told The Indian Express. Earlier in the day, sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that the ministry was still waiting to get a serious proposal from the IOA administrators. “We are waiting for a comprehensive proposal from the IOA. We will take a positive view based on it. It is not only conducting of the games that is important but whenever big events like the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games and the Olympics Games are held there are so many others things to be considered too,” Sonowal said. On Monday, sports secretary Ajit Sharan had demanded a detailed budgetary details from the IOA officials. However, the IOA had only given an initial estimate of Rs 5,500 crore as part of the operative cost. Whereas the officials wanted to know the cost for the construction of the Games Village, where and how much of the land was needed to contruct it as well as projects that will be undertaken in the build up to the event.
