Team Herald
PANJIM: Union Minister for Ayush Shripad Naik was re-elected unopposed as the president of Goa Olympic Association (GOA) for another four-year term (2018 to 2022) at the elections held in a city hotel on Saturday.
To the surprise of the media, Shripad Naik was unavailable for interaction.
GOA rarely holds press conferences as such the media felt that the president should have spoken to the reporters and not left the venue even though it was claimed that he had other appointments since the National Games are close at hand.
GOA Secretary Gurudatta Bhakta while speaking to the press informed that after the elections the president in his acceptance speech mentioned that the selection of the committee has been done carefully as it is a combination of experience and youth. The vice-presidents are all very senior and experienced persons while the joint secretaries are two women who are selfless in their work.
“In all we have brought five new faces out of which three are in the executive committee,” he added.
“The president further announced that GOA will immediately focus on building the Olympic Bhavan for which the land will be scouted and work will start on priority basis. A committee has been appointed for the same with Jayesh Naik as chairman. The other two members will be announced shortly,” Bhakta informed.
To a question on Sport Code being incorporated with the election process, Indian Olympic Association observer K Govindraj informed that the code has got to be passed in the Parliament by the association but the question remains if it is so then why is the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore writing to the Associations to implement the same without a green signal from the government.
When raised a question over Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Girish Chodankar’s inclusion in Shripad panel, Girish mentioned, “When it comes to sports we should not mix politics whether it is District, State or National level. We have been working together for a long time.”
On confirmation of National Games dates Bhakta stated that the Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) will be hold a meeting on September 27 with all the secretaries of the associations to carry forward the Games after which the association will be in a better position to inform about the same.
The National Games will be held in 2019 for which the SAG has made a rule wherein one member from GOA and one from SAG will be there as an observer for the selection process of the team.
“Ashwin Tombat has been appointed as the committee chairman of the National Games team selection panel while Sunil Morajkar has been appointed chairman for the ceremonial dress and kit committee,” he informed.
“A website and WhatsApp group will be officially formed for correspondence for which Rajendra Godinho was selected as chairman.”
“Two additional members for the above committees will be selected later after discussions,” he said.
