HI announces list of members
MS Unnikrishnan
Hockey India announced a list of 30 member units, which includes 26 States/Union Territories and four institutional/boards, who are eligible to attend and vote in the first Annual General Meeting and elections of Hockey India, to be held at a hotel here on July 28. However, four key States are missing from the list – Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
According to Hockey India secretary-general Narinder Batra, elections will be held for president, senior vice-president, vice-presidents (4 – two men and two women), secretary-general, treasurer, joint secretaries (four – two men and two women) and five executive members. As per 4 (a) (ii) of rules and regulations of Hockey India “It shall be mandatory that out of a total of 17 members of the executive board, at least 40 per cent of the members shall be of either gender”.
Justice RC Chopra (retd) will be the returning officer for the elections while Election Commission official R.K.Mendittra will be the Government observer.
Batra announced that from the permanent State/UT members, one male and one female and only one member from either gender representing institutional/boards will be allowed to vote. The elections will be held through secret ballot.
Madhya Pradesh are currently hosting the National Hockey Championship, being held under the auspices of KPS Gill-led Indian Hockey Federation, whose suspension had been revoked by the Delhi High Court. Since most of the States/UTs participating in the IHF nationals also figure in the HI list, there are obviously parallell bodies in those States.
The affiliated member units of the Hockey India are: States/UTs: Hockey Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttrakhand, Assam, Bihar, Mizoram,Kerala, Arunachal, Manipur, Orissa, Nagaland, Tripura Hockey, Andaman and Nicobar, Haryana, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh Hockey, Gujarat, Bengal Hockey Association, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Goans Hockey, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Delhi and Punjab.
Institutional/Boards: Services Sports Control Board, Railway Sports Control Board, Association of Indian Universities and Air India Sports Division.