Uttarakhand may lose hosting of 1st SAF Winter Games

Dehradun, Apr 29 (UNI) Non disbursement of required funds and uncooperative attitude from State Government is likely to hamper hosting of 1st SAF Winter Games -2008 in Auli, Uttarakhand.

''The total estimated budget for holding SAF Games was 65 crore, however not a single penny has been received so far,'' said RK Gupta, Secretary Indian Olympic Association.

''Given the fact that organising international sports like SAF Winter games would boost tourism in the state and help in building international standard sports infrastructure, the Uttarakhand government is not showing the required enthusiasm,'' added Mr.Gupta.

He told media here today that according to the report received so far no work has been initiated in preparation of the SAF Winter Games despite WGFI's time to time technical guidance and priliminary formalities conducted.

''Winter Games Federation of India seeks written assurance from state government by 15 June 2007 for the prescribed games, else it would be shifted to Himachal Pradesh or Jammu and Kashmir,'' he stressed.

''The preparation should have been initiated well in time by now,'' he said adding, ''there was lot of work to be carried out to bring Auli's Winter sports Centre to international standard.'' ''There was no facility of indore ice skating rink and Ice sking slopes too did not fulfill international standard. Indoor Ice Skating rink was proposed at Dehradun but no steps so far has been taken in this direction,'' Mr.Gupta said.

Maintaining that Winter sports was always unpredictable, he said one artificial snow making machine was a must as there was not a single snow making machines at Auli.

Meanwhile, President of WGFI S.S. Pangti said as far as question of fund was concerned, it was not known whether state government had sent any proposal to Centre. ''We have not received any report from state government in this regard,'' he said, adding ''may be the government was too busy due to assembly election and change of guard in the state.'' Mr. Pangti said though there was short time for the preparation, still if the state government cooperates with WGFI in preparation of the Games it was not impossible to hold the games in the state. ''However it ought to be done on a war footing,'' he added.

UNI