Uttar Pradesh sportsmen have demanded ‘restoration’ of 2 per cent job quota in state government departments and early recruitments.
UP Sports Welfare Association (UPSWA) president Mohsin Raza said here that while the 2 per cent sports quota still existed on paper, the state departments had discreetly shunned recruitment of sportsmen against the quota.
“The successive state governments have been apathetic towards sports and sportsmen in UP. We have been raising this issue with all the regimes, but without success,” he told Business Standard.
Raza, a former cricketer, said UP urgently needed a new sports policy and the constitution of a Sports Advisory Council comprising national and international level sportsmen for helping frame such policy.
“At present, only the UP Police department sometimes recruits sportsmen, while other departments have routinely been neglecting the sports quota and doing grave injustice to them,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, he claimed to have written letters to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and all the state legislators seeking their help in resolution of issues concerning the welfare of sportsmen.
Raza has warned of holding demonstrations from January 2013, if the state government failed to take any corrective steps in the interests of sportsmen.
Further, he alleged that the process of procuring sports equipment was not transparent, which resulted in substandard equipment and corruption. He demanded immediate check on such practices and allowing only qualified companies to supply sports equipment.
UPSWA 10-point demands also included raising allowances of sportsmen by 50 per cent; promoting national/international level sportsmen employed in class IV jobs; creating sports infrastructure in rural areas; appointing regular coaches and grounds men under the sports directorate; appointing sportsmen as directors in sports directorate as against administrative officials.