Top boss Thakur quits TOPS
Days after Abhinav Bindra’s resignation, the chairman of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) committee Anurag Thakur too has quit from his position. The exodus is unlikely to stop with the twin departures as more members are expected to put in their papers in the coming days, including former tennis player Manisha Malhotra and Amrit Mathur, who was an adviser to the ministry.
With Thakur gone, Sports Authority of India (SAI) director general Injeti Srinivas has been made in charge of the scheme.
The flurry of resignations seems to have shaken the ministry, with sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal calling for a review meeting on Friday to discuss the way forward. Ministry officials, however, termed the meeting as ‘routine’, refusing that it was triggered following the mass exit of the committee chairman as well as its members.
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A senior ministry official said Thakur, also a BJP MP, tendered his resignation last week, though there are suggestions he was indirectly asked to leave by the ministry after it was decided to hand over the TOPS charge to SAI. However, after initial reluctance to quit, Thakur decided to step down after SAI was officially handed over the scheme.
Another reason for Thakur’s exit is believed to be the manner in which the scheme was handled by the ministry. Since launching it earlier this year, the ministry has faced multiple problems in implementing the ambitious project. Most athletes have complained of long delays in release of funds, multi-layered clearances, complex paperwork and bureaucratic red tape. Malhotra and Mathur, too, are leaving TOPS for the same reasons.
“It won’t be overstating that we are in a state of crisis when it comes to the TOPS. The ministry has not been able to live up to the expectations, and the delays just months before the Olympics defeated the purpose of the scheme,” an official said.
“The charge is now with director general of SAI but they are already over-burdened with a lot of other things. The minister will review the scheme and there will be an attempt to find solutions so that the delays can be erased.”
Dozens of athletes, including shooters Heena Sidhu and Ronjan Singh Sodhi, athletes like Arpinder Singh and Inderjeet Singh, and boxers like Vikas Krishan and Pinki Jhangra have suffered because of the delays in processing their funds.
