Parl panel slams Sports Ministry for lack of fund mobilisation

A Parliamentary Standing Committee has come down hard on the Sports Ministry for its inaction on the the issue of mobilisation of funds from the Public Sector Undertakings, which it said has led to lack of finances to support athletes in their quest for excellence.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development, in its 271st report on ‘Performance of National Sports Development Fund and Recruitment and Promotion of Sportspersons’, has expressed its anguish that the Sports Ministry has not acted upon its earlier directions. “... it has come to notice that CPSUs are not adequately familiar with the existence of NSDF and they are by and large linking NSDF with CSR activities. The Committee, therefore, directs Department of Sports as well as Sports Authority of India to take all possible measures immediately to educate all the CPSUs on the difference between NSDF and their role in CSR so that funds can be mobilised for NSDF without any delay,” said the report of the Committee headed by BJP Rajya Sabha member Satyanarayan Jatiya. “The Committee notes with anguish that this issue was also pointed out in its previous Report on the same subject. However, no action seems to have taken in this regard and in case the awareness and familiarity about the NSDF among the CPSUs continue to languish as on date, the very purpose of NSDF would be defeated and Department of Sports/SAI would be responsible for the failure on their parts to popularise the same.