Archery Association of India slams Sports Ministry after trip cancellation
Archery Association of India (AAI) secretary Maha Singh lashed out at the callousness of the Sports Ministry after the archers had to return following their trip got cancelled for the Medellin World Cup in Colombia. No one from the ministry has responded to calls or reported since the incident.
India’s top archers, which also included Olympian Deepika Kumari, had reportedly been forced to return from the Delhi airport after their trip was cancelled owing to the air route closure over Pakistan. And as per TOI reports, the ministry had given a clearance to the arches last Monday at the eleventh hour resulting in ticket bookings getting done at higher rates and leaving the federation with very little time for suggesting alternative routes.
AAI secretary Maha Singh sounded furious by the course of events revealing that the association had submitted the proposal for the trip 75 days in advance and had gotten visa applications processed as well.
“We had applied for the visa 75 days in advance and submitted it to the ministry to get the tickets issued. It is the federation’s responsibility until the visa process is finalized but getting the tickets is government’s responsibility,” said Singh, reported TOI.
“During that time, we had conducted the national camp in Pune and after that we organized the National Rankings tournament in Chandigarh last week, keeping in mind the standards of the World Cup. In Chandigarh, we had invited the top players from the country to get used to the standard of competition.”
Singh further pointed out the fault on the ministry’s part by stating that the air route closure couldn’t have been an overnight development and an early heads up to the federation could have allowed them to send archers few days in advance.
“I got a call from one of the archers, who said that the flight has been delayed because of the air route closure over Pakistan. If we had been informed by the ministry in advance, we could have sent our archers at least 3-4 days in advance, and they could have easily acclimatized.
“It is only the sports secretary who can answer the reason behind all the mess. This (air route) is not something which has happened overnight; it has been going on since the air strikes. Now they are saying that we can’t allow the team to travel as they will reach the same day,” he added.
TOI also reported that the Sports Ministry hasn’t responded to AAI since Saturday last week and their attempts to contact DG SAI Neelam Kapur went in vain. Some archers had also reportedly reached the airport only to be informed by KLM Royal Dutch, the airline, that they would miss their connecting flight on their route from Delhi-Amsterdam-Bogota.
