BHUBANESWAR 17-Jun-2014 119
The much maligned East Coast Railway Sports Association (ECoRSA) has been reconstituted by Rajiv Vishnoi, the General Manager of the zone and patron of the sports body. Though no official reason has been given for the reconstitution of the six-member body, inside sources say that allegations of arbitrary recruitment of sportspersons under Talent Scouting quota, misappropriation of funds, vigilance investigation and poor performance of the zone in different inter-railway competitions led to the GM taking such a measure.
According to a circular, which came into immediate effect from June 13, the new list of ECoRSA office-bearers, nominated by the GM, include S P Samantray (president); M K Poddar, D K Jha (both vice-presidents), P K Mohanty (general secretary); A K Singh Deo (joint general secretary) and M V Ramana (treasurer).
President Samantray and general secretary Mohanty replaced Arjun Mundia and Sushant Kumar Purohit respectively. In fact, barring Singh Deo, all the officials of the previous body have been changed. However, the post of Singh Deo has been changed from sports officer to joint general secretary.
According to sources, while making recruitment under sports quota, the trial committee of the previous body arbitrarily rejected applications of many outstanding achievers, including rising woman sprinter Dutee Chand, her male counterpart Amiya Mallick, India A swing bowler Basant Mohanty, international woman footballers Sita Sharma and Alochana Senapati. But thanks to the same committee`s dubious selection criteria, lesser-known, even university-level sportspersons became successful in securing jobs.
Subhendu Sekhar Kar, an employee of the zone, was allegedly victimized when he tried to expose the acts of misappropriation of funds in the conduct of different inter-railway sports events by the earlier body. Kar, who was transferred from Bhubaneswar to Sambalpur for seeking information on receipt and expenditure of money for sports activities, however, foiled the attempt by getting a stay order from the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Cuttack.
After complaints against the alleged misdeeds of ECoRSA reached the Railway Ministry, the matter was investigated by a departmental senior vigilance officer earlier this year.
