Ministry irked by IHF election

V Narayan Swamy

BANGALORE: The Union sports ministry has taken exception to the Indian Hockey Federations (IHF) election held on Monday,saying the federation had been directed not to initiate the election process until it had complied with the criteria stipulated by the Union government.

In a letter to IHF, the ministry sought to know the veracity of reports about the election held at the special general body meeting on Monday and said the federation faced “derecognition in view of the violations committed”.

Joint secretary Injeti Srinivas told TOI that IHF had not informed the ministry of its election plans.

“We did not get any advance notice of IHF’s special general body meeting. We had no idea about the election.We learnt about it through the media,” he said.

“We are concerned by the blatant violation of rules.IHF had been given conditional recognition in the hope that they would fulfill the pre-requisites spelt out by us. They are yet to comply with those conditions. As such,this election is null and void.”

IHF completed the electoral process in the Monday meeting with RK Shetty replacing former top cop KPS Gill. All office-bearers were elected unopposed.