Cabinet dumps draft Sports Bill

The union cabinet today decided against tabling the National Sports Development Bill in Parliament in its current form and asked sports minister Ajay Maken to come up with another draft.

The cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and comprising Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, CP Joshi, Farooq Abdullah and Vilasrao Deshmukh decided against tabling the bill in Parliament in its present form.

The cabinet decided against moving the bill that sought to bring transparency and accountability in the functioning of national sports bodies and bring them under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, following objections by cabinet ministers who head different sports organisations.

At least five cabinet ministers are heading different sports bodies and sports minister Ajay Maken has been asked to rework the bill in the wake of objections raised by these ministers.

The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) was the first to come out against the sports bill that sought to put the sports body under the Right To Information (RTI) Act and bring accountability among sports bodies.

President of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Sharad Pawar said he has some reservations about certain aspects of the bill while BCCI member Anurag Thakur said the government should not worry about BCCI as it is the most organised and professional sports body in India and should instead focus on building sports infrastructure.