Indian boxing officials in process of drafting new constitution

India's boxing officials said on Tuesday that they are in the process of drafting a new constitution and also forming a new national body to ensure that pugilists do not suffer.

The Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) has been derecognised by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and the sport is in the hands of an ad-hoc body set up by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

On Tuesday, the AIBA's co-ordination board held a meeting here with 18 state units including Manipur, Bengal, Odisha, Haryana, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Assam and Meghalaya to discuss the formation of a new national boxing body.

"We have placed our draft constitution for the national federation. All state units has been asked to send their observations to the adhoc committee (set up by the world body) at the earliest," coordination board member, Asit Banerjee told journalists here on the sidelines of the 12th South Asian Games.

The co-ordination board meeting, which was also attended by members of the AIBA's ad-hoc committee for India, AIBA executive committee vice-chairman Kishen Narsi and convenor of the AIBA's ad-hoc committee for Indian boxing Jay Kowli, asked the state units to send their observations on the circulated draft constitution within seven days.

"Once we receive their observations and recommendations we will then forward the same to AIBA (world body) for further ratification," Banerjee said.

"We do not want our boxers to suffer because of us. We wanted to resolve this issue before the Rio Olympics," he added.