Sports Ministry sets up committee to put an end to rising doping issues

The one constant threat that federations over the years have tried to fight off is the one pertaining to doping. The cases of players getting lured towards drugs before crucial matches out of mixed emotions has been one too many. Taking a step towards ensuring that no more of such cases are reported, the Mukul Mudgal committee, had been set up by the Sports Ministry to put an end to the rising doping issues and has recommended a prison sentence for those who provide athletes with banned substance or a hefty fine of Rs 10 lakh. To set things into action, a 15-member committee has been selected which is to be headed by the retired High Court Judge Justice Mudgal,

with the sports ministry being consulted for further deliberation. A proposition of getting a bill passed on this motion is already doing it's rounds. If things stick to plan, the new bill could be introduced in the Parliament as early as in the coming winter session. According to a proposed report released by the 'National Anti-Doping Legislation-2018’, the draft states that “any person who fails to comply with the duty of this act shall be fined, which may extend to Rs 20,000 for the first offence and if the offence is repeated, it may extend to Rs two lakh for each offence”. Justice Mudgal spoke to the

TOI on the matter saying, “There are two things. One is where athletes get involved accidentally because the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) keeps changing the list of prohibited substances every six months on its website. Many athletes have been caught in this web. Then, there is a lack of knowledge about many substances which athletes take. So, the key point is education. Educating the athletes is very important. This legislation tries to grab persons involved in doping or are part of these syndicates." The draft suggests that, “any person who indulges in supply of prohibited substance to an athlete on a regular basis for commercial purposes shall be guilty of the offence of ‘trafficking’ and shall be punished with simple imprisonment which may extend to one year and shall also be liable for a fine which may extend to Rs 10 lakh”. The measures taken by NADA is extremely needed at this hour. After the entire fiasco during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, with syringes getting discovered in the boxing camp and India's name getting dragged into it unpleasantly, such strict rules need to be adopted. Numerous nations like Germany, Australia, Italy, France, Austria, Spain, Hungary and Denmark, already have extremely strict anti-doping laws and India seem to be following the same road to a better dope-free future.

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