Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Not holding VHA elections after one year was a mistake: Sarda

Sports Reporter
Nagpur, Nov 20
VIDARBHA Hockey Association (VHA) president and presidential candidate of Hockey Lovers Panel conceded that his body made a mistake by not holding association’s elections after completion of their one year tenure in November 2015.
Sarda apologised all the stakeholders but said that the association did not have proper books of accounts which forced them to postpone the election for two years.
The election of the association are going to be held on November 27 at VHA office, Amravati Road.
Addressing a press conference, Sarda said, “the cheque book, receipt books are still with Shyam Sharma (treasurer). He also did not release funds for election purpose. Since early 2015 we did not get support from Sharma.”
Sarda rolled out all the ‘achievements’ of his body in the last two years but failed to give concrete reply on not holding district tournament and not approaching Hockey India for annual grant.
“There are two associations in almost every districts affiliated with VHA. It was very difficult to organise a district tournament as we were not sure which body is legal,” replied the VHA president.
On Hockey India’s grant, Sarda accepted that they did a mistake of not contacting the country’s hockey governing body on the issue. “To avail a grant, proper audited accounts is needed. When we came into power, we did not get all the relevant documents from previous body. Later, we could not prepare audited accounts due to non co-operation from treasurer. We did not contact Hockey India on the issue for a solution for which we accept our mistake,” said Sarda.
On his body’s tenure, Sarda said they tried to conduct almost all the regular tournaments.
Sarda said the association is progressing in the right direction on acquiring Astro Turf at Nagpur.
“Maharashtra Government has recommended the proposal to the Central Government in the month of April. We have approached BJP sports Cell chief Rani Nighot Dwivedi, a former hockey player from Nagpur, to look after our proposal,” Sarda informed.
Sardar Atal Bahadur Singh, Sanat Vora, Sunil Agrawal, GM Pillay, Salim Baig, AP Joshi and all other candidates of Hockey Lovers Panel were also present during the press conference.

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