Indian Rowing Federation has been de-recognised by the Sports Ministry

On Wednesday, the Indian Sports Ministry de-recognised the Rowing Federation of India (RFI) on the grounds of violating the Sports Code of 2011 during its elections held in December.

In the elections held on December 6 in Hyderabad, Rajlaxmi

Singh Deo and MV Sriram were elected as president and secretary-general

respectively.

But as per the Ministry, the elections were not held in

accordance with the Sports Code and hence the federation now stands

de-recognised. In what could be a major blot in the federation’s functioning, the

Ministry has also written to the Indian Olympic Association to constitute an ad

hoc committee to suspend the functions of the RFI.

"Upon examination of the matter (from the reports of

the Returning Officer and government observer), it has been found that the said

elections of the RFI are not in accordance with the Model Elections Guidelines

prescribed in the National Sports Development Code of India, 2011," the letter

from the ministry said, as per Outlook India.

"... it has been decided that the recognition of the

RFI would cease w.e.f 01/02/2020 and not be renewed in view of the positions

explained," it added.

The ministry highlighted four different areas in which it

found violations of the Sports Code by RFI.

"As per the website of RFI, there are 21 state/UT units

out of which only 18 participated in the election process. RFI does not fulfil

the 2/3 state/UT affiliation criteria as it must have had at least 25 state/UT

as its affiliated members.

"MV Sriram had held the post of Secretary General for two terms till January 2016 and hence as per the cooling-off provision of the NSDCI (Sports Code), 2011, he would have been eligible to contest elections only after 29.01.2020 (after the completion of a cooling-off period of four years)."

The sports ministry’s Sports Code does not allow proxy

voting, which was the case at the RFI elections. And while the Sports Code

allows only two votes per its affiliated unit, the RFI allowed three.