No RTI for Indian Olympic Association says Ramachandran
30 Jul, 2014Talking about the sports policy and sports code, the President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) N Ramachandran expressed his disagreement to the IOA coming under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
· He pointed out that many of the sports federations have written to IOA on this issue and the organisation shall be writing to the sports ministry about it. Specifying his objections to the sports policy and code, he said that
· The RTI Act is being utilised by a few interested parties to harass and pester the IOA and the national sports federations (NSFs).
· The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audits the IOA and all NSFs.
· Further, the IOA and the NSFs file the IT returns to the income tax department and maintain audit reports.
His main contention appeared to be that since government is funding the IOA, it is accountable to the government without sacrificing the autonomy. Giving his view that there is no need to come under the RTI, he said that it should not be a tool to harass federations. He voiced his opinion that since the government represents the public and the federations are accountable to the government.
N Ramachandran took charge of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) about six months back and at 66 years of age, he has a term for 2 years. According to the International Olympic Committee statutes, he cannot continue beyond 70 years of age.