Gone are the days when the Sports Federations in India would work in their own enigmatic manner refusing to work in an open environment where everything can be questioned.
It has been a top class decision by the Government of India, all the sports federations receiving a grant of Rs. 10 lakhs or more are under the umbrella of the Right To Information (RTI) Act, 2005 which empowers the citizen to seek the information he demands.
The Act allows a citizen to question and seek clarification from the sports federations over matters which ever earlier known to a few in power.
“An Act to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the constitution of a Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto,” states the Act.
The AIFF are to receive a grant of ten crore rupees for the India U-23 side to prepare for the Asian Games to be held in China later this year. This means that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is also under the purview of the Act which throws a unique chance for the people of India to know all that they always wanted to inquire.
The idea behind the new ruling is that since the Federations are doing a function of preparing the national teams for the international representation, they owe it to the people of the country to make their functioning more transparent.
“There has to be transparency in any sports federation as it governs the national function. Hence, now they have to disclose their balance sheet, profit-loss statements, the selection criteria for the national team, the national calendar, and office bearers to the public.
“This will enhance the level of accountability across the Federations,” said Injeti Srinivasan, joint secretary of Indian Sports Ministry to Goal.com.
It’s truly a five star move by the Government to ensure that the working of the Federations become more transparent and no more will the contracts between the employer and employees of the Federations be a private matter, as they are being paid by the people of India.
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Wednesday 31 March 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.