Why we should support Maken's Sports Bill

Union Sports Minister, Ajay Maken, unveiled the draft of the new sports bill on Monday while  retaining the contentious provisions on age limits and tenure of heads of sports bodies which were opposed by his colleagues, when it was introduced earlier this year. The draft proposes that no individual can hold office at any National Sports body beyond the age of 70; while stating that no individual can hold office for more than three terms or twelve years without a break. The draft further proposes dropping of the Sports Ombudsman and the Lokpal and instead favours the formation of a ‘Indian Court for Arbitration of Sports’ along the lines of the International Court of Arbitration for Sports based in Lausanne. [caption id=“attachment_110468” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The new Sports Bill draft brings in an exclusion clause that protects certain information while putting the sports bodies under the ambit of the RTI. PTI”] [/caption] The draft proposes one national federation for each of 66 sports bodies and an independent sports tribunal for any disputes in the sports world. It also removes the government’s discretion to withdraw recognition to any federation. Once a registration is granted to a sports body only the proposed tribunal can withdraw registrations and disputes handled by the arbitration court will be automatically out of jurisdiction of this tribunal. The exclusion clause regarding the Right to Information (RTI) Act says that exclusion is in place to protect certain information which may be used by our competitors against our athletes. No queries will be entertained regarding the following: 1. Election, appointment or exclusion of athlete, coach, trainer or physiotherapist for an athletic competition 2. Quality of performance of an athlete in an athletic competition 3. Medical health and fitness of an athlete 4. Whereabouts of an athlete 5. Information which is confidential under the NADA (National Anti-Doping Agency) code. The draft also includes a specific anti-doping provision to exclude the Indian sports persons from WADA (World Anti-Doping-Agency) or NADA code. The draft states that coaches, guardians and other support personnel should prevent unethical practices in sports like doping, fraud of age, and sexual harassment. The draft bill is up on the Sports Ministry website for comments and suggestions until October 29. Agencies