Union sports minister Rajyavardhan Rathore concerned over facilities at SAI Bengaluru

Bengaluru, March 22: Union sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore expressed concern over the state of the athletics track and swimming pool at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru and says he will order a probe into the quality of work. The swimming pool was demolished and the redevelopment has taken more than a year with only one of the two pools operational currently. The synthetic track too was relaid just before the 2016 Rio Olympics but both facilities already appear rusty in less than two years. Rathore, who visited the SAI campus in the city on Thursday (March 22), slammed the SAI officials for their poor maintainence of the instrastructure at the centre.

"I'd been hearing about the bad quality of the work that is happening on the synthetic athletics track and the swimming pool," Rathore told reporters. "I've seen it myself now and there are a lot of improvements required. There is very poor quality of workmanship that has gone into the swimming pool. The surface of the synthetic track is supposed to be brand new, it's supposed to have a life of seven years and it is already worn out in places and they've put patches. It's only two years old."

Met people from Rajasthan who have achieved milestones of success in various fields in Bengaluru.

This cultural exchange of ideas that happens in every state of India is what unites us beyond our diversity. I thank everyone who took the time & effort to meet me! pic.twitter.com/t7WpXfPqkv

— Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) March 22, 2018

Rathore claims he will not let the contractors go scot-free for their bad work.

"The agencies that have been asked to do this work -- I'm going to order an inquiry into both of these," he further said. "The money belongs to the taxpayers. Each penny has to be accounted for and we have to get the best value for it. There are better synthetic tracks and better swimming pools being laid out for lesser money than what we've invested. This is very distressing for me."

At the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence @Sports_PDCSE

Built for sportspersons, by sport enthusiasts Vivek Kumar, his wife Dr. Shama Kittur & supported by @Abhinav_Bindra,it's a unique private multisport centre.
Saw our future champions training here in full swing 😊 pic.twitter.com/AjakLAU9TC

— Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) March 21, 2018

The sports minister, who is an Olympic silver medallist in shooting, says former athletes, who are serving as national observers in various disciplines need to be treated with respect. Former long jumper Anju Bobby George and weight-lifter Karnam Malleswari were asked to quit as observers over a potential conflict of interest in a harshly-worded letter sent by the sports ministry. Bobby George says she was asked to quit as she runs an academy of her own, a charge she denies.

Rathore defended the move to sack them. "If you run a sports academy, you are attached to your athletes," he said. "And when you are in the selection of athletes for the TOP scheme, then you can get biased towards selecting only your students. And this is a complaint that has come to us. We personally called all the top athletes who were affected by this and we said, 'You understand fair play. Why don't you on your own resign because it is conflict of interest?' A call went to each and every athlete and I stand by my word. Some of them resigned; we did not send any letter. Unfortunately one or two of them tweeted about it. It was not required because it was their own decision in the interest of fair play."

He, however, was mindful of the language used by the sports ministry official in the letter, which reeked of disrespect towards the athletes. "There were few of them who were not willing to give up their place," Rathore added. "However, no letter can go wherein the language can be harsh towards their athletes. There has to be respect. I will get to the bottom of this. I will see who the officer is; it does not matter if it's a junior. They're probably used to the old way of functioning of the sports ministry. We can't function like that anymore. These are old habits and they will take time to go. But I will ensure that they do."