Sportspersons go on relay hunger strike
Mahbubnagar: The sportspersons in Mahbubnagar have opposed the recently issued GO No-7 to confine 2 per cent reservation announced by the State government to only 8 major sports and that too applying it only for those candidates who have excelled at the national and international stage.
Significantly, the state government had scrapped 2 per cent sports quota in education and jobs when a big scam was enearthed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. The 2 per quota was being misused by candidates in getting MBBS seats in the State for some price. Fictitious sports were mentions for getting admission in MBBS courses by paying bribe to officials.
Afterwards, the government issued guidelines regarding the sports quota in jobs and admissions. According to the fresh guidelines, sportspersons of the competitive sports disciplines shall only be eligible for consideration for selection under sports quota.
The games include Olympics, Youth Olympics, Asian Games, Youth Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Youth Commonwealth Games, South Asian Federation Games and last National Games.
Aggrieved over the State government’s action, the sportspersons in Mahbubnagar district have gon on a relay hunger strike and demanded the government to immediately restore its earlier GO and ensure that each and every sports person in the State gets the benefit of reservations announced by the government.
“We were very happy when the government had announced 2 per cent reservation in education and jobs for sports candidates and even did ‘Palabhishekam’ to KCR for his decision to support sports and games in the State. However with the state government not withstanding its earlier orders has again issued another GO 7 which is a big hurdle for many sports persons,” rued GA William, district Kho-Kho Assocaiton Secretary of Mahbubnagar.
“Given the kind of sports infrastructure, it is impossible for the local sportspersons to reach the international level and confining the reservation quota to only 8 sports is also another blunder the government is making as it will lead to polarisation of sportspersons to only a few sports and other sports will be ruined, he added”.
Not happy with the way the state government is treating sports and sportspersons in the state, members of district Olympic Association members, heads of associations of various sports in the district, physical education directors, PET teachers and sportspersons went on relay hunger strike for the second day in Mahbubnagar.
Leading persons who took part in the hunger strike include leading sportsman Vidhyadhar , Gajanand, district Football Association secretary, PETs Ramakrishna, Bhanu Kiran and Chandrasekhar along with other women sports candidates and PETs Mersi French, Umadevi, Aruna Jyothy, Swapna, Suguna, Nagamani and others.
Former TDP MLA Yerra Sekhar also supported the hunger strike and demanded the government to immediately take back the GO and restore its earlier announcement of providing 2 per cent reservations to all the sportspersons in the State.