//

Archery coach selection fiasco: Sports secy issues show cause notice to SAA director

Itanagar: The Sports and Youth affairs department has sought clarifications from the Sports Authority of Arunachal (SAA) director into the allegations of nepotism in the recent appointment of archery instructor, as leveled by Sorang Yumi, a National Games archery medalist.

Yumi had on Tuesday alleged SAA director Gumnya Karbak of appointing one of his relatives as the instructor, hence denying her the post.  

A similar allegation was also leveled against sports director Tadar Apa.

Sports and Youth Affairs secretary Anirudh Singh, in a show-cause notice issued to the SAA director on Tuesday sought clarifications as to whether the allegations were true or not.

With regards to allegations that the posts were advertised for ‘coaches’ but allegedly recruitment of ‘instructors’ was done and the recruitment rules (RRs) both are different, the SAA director has been asked to clarify whether relaxation of RRs was taken from the competent authority before carrying out such recruitment.

Karbak has also been asked to clarify the alleged inconsistency between the numbers of posts advertised for and recruited, which according to the complainant is higher, and also the absence of the skill mark sheet from the record which was supposedly countersigned by her.

In addition, the show-cause notice asked the SAA director why the recruitment process was never routed through the sports secretary and the sports and youth affairs minister.

“It was further observed that the said posts were created for specific disciplines. There is a clear deviation from the approved list. Was any approval of the competent authority taken? Kindly explain,” the notice said.

“The posts were created in 2018. Kindly explain whether post continuation from the finance department has been obtained before conducting the recruitment?” it added.

The SAA director has been asked to give his reply on or before September 14 “failing which it shall be presumed that you have nothing to say in the matter and the results of recruitment shall be duly cancelled as per law”. 

Meanwhile, Singh has also asked Apa to re-evaluate the recruitment result giving primacy to order of preference so that the past champion athletes get preference as per the guidelines.

The sports director has been asked to submit the re-evaluated results for approval of the competent authority by September 10 without fail.

The director of sports had on December 29, 2020, advertised a walk-in interview for the appointment of six coaches for various disciplines under the Khelo India Scheme.

One of the posts was of an archery coach.

Both Karbak and Apa could not be contacted for their comments.