Cabinet to discuss new Sports Bill today

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet will discuss the new Sports Bill on Tuesday. The Sports ministry's new Bill, looking at functioning of different sporting bodies, is to be brought up before the Cabinet on Tuesday.

Cricket as a sport is also being included in the new Sports Bill. This will be the first move to bring the cricketing administration under the Sports ministry.

Under the new Sports Bill, all Sport federations will be covered by the Right to Information (RTI) Act. All the Sport federations will have to submit the audited reports to Parliament.

Sports Minister Ajay Maken on Monday said that the government has already introduced the Draft National Sports Development Bill in the Parliament and he is expecting that it will be passed in the ongoing Monsoon Session itself.

Maken said the Bill once passed by the Parliament would bring in more accountability in the functioning of National Sports Federations (NSFs).

"We need reforms in sports, which we hope the National Sports Bill will bring. Our idea was to introduce the Bill in the monsoon session and we have already done that. Now the inter-ministerial consultation is going on and once it is over, it will go to the Parliament for resolution," he said.

"I am hopeful that the Parliament will be unanimous on this Bill. I am hopeful it (Bill) will be cleared in this session," Maken told reporters on the occasion of hockey legend Dhyan Chand's 106th birth anniversary, regarded as National Sports Day in the country.

"We need reforms in sports which this Bill will bring in. The Bill will bring in transparency in NSFs," he added.

He said if passed by the Parliament the Bill would make it mandatory for NSFs to have 25 per cent reservation for sportspersons in their executive board.

Terming Dhyan Chand as the brightest star of Indian sports, Maken said there was an urgent need to develop a sports culture in the country to produce many more champions like the hockey legend.

"We have built world class infrastructure during the Commonwealth Games but only infrastructure can't help. We need to encourage sports culture first as this will fetch us medals and not infrastructure alone," he said.

(With additional information from PTI)