New Delhi: Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has expressed its outrage over the pathetic conditions of the sprawling Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and has blamed the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the sports ministry for not properly maintaining the expensive stadium.

“We saw the pictures of the pitiable conditions of the stadium in the press and later received several complaints by the sports fans and some foreign spectators about the pitiable conditions of the stadium where they had to clean the seats which were full of filth and dirt,” said IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra in a statement.

He said the reason for this slightly delayed response was because “We did not want rush to media but made our inquiries and found that all the complaints were correct.”

Prof. Malhotra said though the match was played for a laudable purpose-farewell to Bhaichung Bhutia and collecting fund for Sikkim earthquake victims- the impression left on the mind of the paying public and foreign guests after seeing the conditions of the stadium is one of disgust.

“Instead of seeing Incredible India, the foreigners witnessed the worst”, this was Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) way of promoting sports tourism. “The condition of other stadiums is also no better and the way things are going they are going to become big junkyards”

Prof. Malhotra reminded the Sports Minister and SAI  officials that in October last year he had warned that because of lack of proper upkeep the  Rs 1000- Crore Nehru stadium is turning out to be most expensive junkyard in the world.

He urged the sports ministry to put its own house in order and strictly monitor the upkeep of these expensive stadia. “Otherwise we may hear more horror stories about these stadiums”

Prof  Malhotra also advised the sports minister to use his energies in a constructive way ” Ajay Maken should try to  get the rules for the MPLAD scheme amended or revised to allow these funds also to be used for promotion of sports at the grass root level, building of sports infra structure , holding of  state, national and International competitions.”

“Once these rules are changed, the Minister should then convince every member of Parliament (both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) to contribute at least ten percent of his /her fund available to them under MPLAD for sports related schemes.”

By Indian Sports News Network