By a Staff Reporter
Kathmandu – Board members of the National Sports Council have accused Sports Minister Maheshwar Jung Gahatraj of refusing to accept their letter demanding the board meeting of the sports governing body of Nepal.
Altogether 13 board members of the NSC had reached the Ministry of Youth and Sports on Thursday to submit the letter jointly demanding the board meeting. After the minister refused to accept the letter, the NSC board members registered the letter at the ministry’s secretariat and returned back. A copy of the letter was later provided to the Department Chief of NSC Madhu Sudhan Basnet.
Executive member of the board Ekendra Kunwar said that the inordinate delay in holding the board meeting has caused confusion within the NSC – the apex sports body of the country.
“There is confusion among NSC members due to the delay in holding the board meeting. In order to resolve the problem, we all decided to meet Sports Minister Maheshwar Jung Gahatraj in order to end the impasse. However, he did not want to entertain us. We are facing difficulty because the NSC doesn’t have member secretary. We request concerned authorities to resolve this problem for the sake of players and the sports fraternity,” said Kunwar.
Meanwhile, Sports Minister Gahatraj said the no one had sought an appointment with him to submit the letter.
“They had not asked for a meeting with me. I personally met Ekendra Kunwar and said we will discuss the issue later. I assured him that I would inform him about the matter,” said Minister Gahatraj adding, “NSC meber Subash Shrestha had informed me that he would pay a visit. But he turned up with a delegation so I could not entertain all of them. Probably the letter must have been registered at the secretariat.”
The board meeting of NSC scheduled for July 13, 2021 has not been able to take place till now due to the reshuffling of the Council of Ministers. It has been seven months since the meeting has not taken place and therefore the board members requested for holding the meeting in accordance to Section 10 (4) of the National Sports Development Act 207, states the letter.
The letter bears the signatures of NSC members Elendra Bahadur Kunwar, Nanda Bassyal, Renuka Shrestha, Sampanna Shrestha, Suwarna Shrestha, Rim Bahadur Ranabhat, Subhash Shrestha, Mandev Hajara, Purendra Bikram Lakhe, Hari Khadka, Chandra Badana Rai, Sumitra Chaudhary and Rajesh Gurung.
NSC member Subarna Shrestha informed that the sports minister is not interested to resolve the problems faced by the sports governing body.
“We had visited the ministry to present our problems. But he refused to accept our letter. We had had an appointment with him,” said Shrestha, adding, “This clearly shows that the minister is not serious about the problem.”
