Published: Feb 11, 2014, 11:38 PM (IST)
Edited: Jul 27, 2014, 11:08 PM (IST)
New Delhi: Feb 11, 2014
Asserting that the Justice Mudgal committee‘s indictment of corruption in the Indian Premier League (IPL) strengthened the case for bringing cricket within the ambit of an anti-fraud bill, Sports Minister Jitendra Singh today said the legislation is necessary to stop such malpractices.
The bill seeks to address issues such as match-fixing, deliberate under-performance and leaking of sensitive information.
While the Minister said the IPL match-fixing matter was sub-judice, he insisted that the Sports Ministry, on its part, was working hard on trying to pass the anti-sports fraud bill so that the ills in sports could be prevented.
“The matter is sub-judice. The report has been submitted.
I don’t think I should be commenting on the matter, which is subjudice,” he said.
“But as a Sports Minister, of course when such matters come to light, one gets very disturbed and feels that there should be a proper legislation, proper mechanisms in place both in law and in government. That’s why we have been working very hard on the anti-sports fraud bill,” he added.
Jitendra said that the bill was in the final stages of consultations before he could present it in the cabinet.
“The final consultation needs to happen. We have consulted all the ministries and also put it in public domain.
“We have also consulted the National Sports Federations.
“Comments are awaited from the Ministry of Home Affairs only. I have requested the honourable Home Minister also to quickly send us his comments, so that we can table it in the cabinet before introducing it in the Parliament. We want to do it in this session itself,” he revealed.
Jitendra said that his Ministry was also keen to pass the Sports Development bill so that all the NSFs, including the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) could come under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
“Sports Development Bill says that all NSFs must come under the RTI. I feel that BCCI should also come under the RTI, I have said that before,” Jitendra said.
Asked if the proposed sports bill would again be shot down as it was the last time around, with members across political parties having some stake in the BCCI, Jitendra said, “We have had wide consultations on this bill with various stakeholders. It has been discussed thoroughly and I hope this time around, members of all parties would agree to it. I think times have changed a lot since then and there is much more awareness now.”
The Minister said that the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is holding discussions with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on the final draft sports bill.
“We are having consultations with the IOC regarding the Sports Development Bill. After taking suggestions from all stakeholders as well as the public, we are holding final consultations with the IOC.
“This has happened for the first time that the IOC is discussing bill on sports legislation with a country. This hasn’t happened anywhere. At Lausanne, the president of IOC had told us that they would work with us on the sports bill so that it is helpful to the NSFs, for legislation and help curb all the ills coming into sports,” Jitendra explained.
Asked whether the bill would be first cleared by the IOC before being placed before the Parliament, Jitendra said, “We don’t need to get our bill cleared by the IOC.
“It’s just a matter of discussion. Concern of IOC is that we should not curb the autonomy of the IOA and we agree with that. We can’t be running the sports federations and don’t have any intentions of doing that. So we and IOC are on the same page.”
