Athletes served food stored in toilet in UP, sports officer suspended
Saharanpur (UP) (PTI): Athletes at a state-level kabaddi tournament here were allegedly served food that was stored in a toilet, following which the district sports officer was suspended for laxity, according to officials.
A purported video of the September 16 incident, which went viral on social media, showed the athletes who took part in the sub-junior girls' kabaddi tournament at the Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Stadium being served rice and poori that had been stored in the toilet.
The tournament was hosted from September 16 to 18 in which over 300 players from 16 divisions of the state took part.
Additional Chief Secretary (Sports) Navneet Sehgal told PTI that Saharanpur District Sports Officer Animesh Saxena was suspended on Monday.
District Magistrate Akhilesh Singh said Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Rajnish Kumar Mishra would conduct a probe and submit a report in three days.
Singh said, "The rice and pooris were kept in a toilet. The video, which went viral on social media, showed the players taking the food kept inside the toilet."
He added that it had also come to the administration's notice that the food was cooked in the swimming pool premises and only two cooks were engaged to prepare food for over 300 people.
The food that was prepared was then stored inside the toilet, he added.
The pooris were spread on a piece of paper, while the rice was half-cooked. The players could not even get adequate food, the district magistrate said.
Singh has directed the probe team to speak to the athletes, get the video clip and submit a report.
"The district sports officer did not inform the administration about the state-level tournament. If the administration had been informed, it would have given special attention to the competition," he added.
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We received request; will decide soon whether to support TVK: Thirumavalavan
Chennai (PTI): VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan on Thursday said that his party received a request from TVK for support and the high-level committee of his party will decide whether to support the Vijay-led party to form the government.
The TVK won 108 seats in the 234-member Assembly and emerged as the single largest party. Vijay will have to resign from one of the two constituencies he has won.
Though the Congress party, which has five MLAs, has extended support to TVK, the actor-politician-led party was still short of as many seats to touch the magic number of 118, the majority mark in the 234-member House.
"We received the request letter from TVK. We are thankful for that. We have not ignored his (Vijay's) request. We have a procedure. Therefore, our party's high-level committee will decide soon. We are going to discuss the merits and demerits of our position," the VCK leader told reporters here.
With regard to the delay in the governor's call to the TVK, which is the single largest party, to form the government, Thirumavalavan requested the governor to invite Vijay to form the government. "It is a constitutional right and people's verdict," he added.
Asserting that the governor cannot say that Vijay should hold 118 MLAs' support now itself to form the government, he said that after taking over power, Vijay has to prove an absolute majority only on the floor of the Assembly.
