Rift evident in UP hockey body

Things are not very smooth in state hockey body with two factions— one in which former hockey international and former secretary of UP Women’s Hockey Association (UPWHA) Bula Ganguly is the secretary and one in which former UPHA secretary JN Tyagi is the secretary, each claiming to be the “actual” state units of Hockey India.

Talking to The Indian Express, former Hockey India secretary general Mohammad Aslam Khan claimed that he had given affiliation to UP Hockey which is represented by Captain Baldev Singh as president and Bula Ganguly as secretary. “I resigned from Hockey India in November, 2009 and after that very quietly Hockey India gave recognition to a body of which Sanjay Singh is the president and JN Tyagi is the secretary which is not justified,” he said.

“To make things clear, I am holding a press conference on Tuesday at Kanpur to bring out the reality. When there is talk about merger of men’s and women’s hockey bodies in the states, how can one think about both the president and the secretary being males.”

However, the UP Olympic Association (UPOA) secretary general Anandeshwar Pandey said Bula too attended the meeting held in October 2009 in which Dr Sanjay Singh and JN Tyagi were declared as president and secretary, respectively.

Bula said, “ We were told that a meeting is being organised to discuss the future line of action as per the directions of Hockey India but we were quite surprised to see JN Tyagi announcing a list office-bearers. Later, Hockey India secretary general Aslam Khan had formed the state hockey body— Hockey Uttar Pradesh.”