NESHWIN ALMEIDA
In the darkness of the SGPDA market complex when little kids are susceptible to potential dangers, Rajesh Naik, the SAG coach is forced to make the skating children end their 7 pm skating class by relaxing on the bare asphalt floor of the South Goa Planning Development Authority market complex and what’s scary is the glass beer bottle debris thrown by miscreants from another drunken night just besides the skating kids.
“The SAG and the Directorate of Sports in Margao promised a skating rink outside the Fatorda stadium on two occasions during Lusofonia Games but till date there is no skating rink and our children have to skate in the parking lot of the town’s market and there’s foul smell here, rotting carcasses from the meat and poultry market and sewage fish water but our children are forced to skate here since 2012,” explains a parent of Amol Pai, who attends skating at the SGPDA market complex.
SAG coach Naik, on the other hand tells us that the SAG has allotted the badminton multipurpose court to him for skating classes in the day but nobody turns up there in the day because students are at school and the multipurpose complex is not available in the evening hence he has to use the SGPDA market.
Parents claim that the SAG has told Rajesh Naik to use the stadium area to conduct skating classes to which he says it’s not possible because entry to the stadium is denied during ISL, I-League and other big football matches.
Mario Gomes, a private skating coach explains that the SAG needs to have its own rink and outsource coaching to professionals.
While Satish Shetty another coach who conducts skating classes at Chinchinim grounds explains that the SAG’s indifference to students has really made the sport suffer.
Parents tell us how the market facility lacks storage and how they have to bring their own blocking cones for their children’s skating and feel that the SAG and its coaching classes which is free for children are not taken seriously.
Not even floodlights are placed at the SGPDA. While admissions are makeshift, no proper registers are maintained or identity cards or enrolments cards are made to keep track of the progress of the coaching facility.
Sports Authority of Goa’s Director V M Prabhudessai stated that work of a skating rink will be taken up along with the cycling velodrome for the national games which were slated for 2017 but seemed postponed with delay of infrastructure. Until then he stated that the existing coaches have to make do with the available facilities in Margao.
Local MLA Vijai Sardesai when visiting the Fatorda jogger’s tracks had promised around six months back to look into the matter but handing over of the stadium property for the FIFA World Cup U 17 has stalled the chance of rink completely till date.
