The Sports Ministry on Tuesday revoked the suspension imposed on the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) after the body initiated the process for its long-pending elections, in which multiple-time Paralympic medallist Devendra Jhajharia is set to be elected President.
On February 2, the ministry terminated PCI’s recognition for “intentional delay to elect a new executive committee” as per the National Sports Code.
The PCI had postponed the elections, which should have been held before January 31 this year, to March 28 because of the impending Para Shooting World Cup from March 6–15.
After its suspension, the body proposed March 9 as the new date to elect governing body members and began the process of nominations. Most of its top posts are set to be filled without any contest.
The ministry said that the “main ground for suspension of government recognition” has been addressed.
“Since the election process has reached the stage where the nominated candidates have been deemed to be duly elected unanimously, as well as the important fact that PCI is hosting the 2024 World Shooting Para Sport World Cup from 06-15 March 2024 at New Delhi, it has been decided to revoke the suspension of PCI, with immediate effect,” read a ministry letter to PCI.
“The Returning Officer for election of PCI has vide notification dated 04.03.2024, notified the list of unopposed candidates deemed to be duly elected, in terms of Article 9 sub clause (1) of Model Election Guidelines (Annexure-XXXVII of the Sports Code 2011),”it added.
The Para Shooting World Cup offers 24 Paris Paralympic quota places, and more than 500 shooters from 52 countries will be seen in action in the event to be held at Delhi’s Karni Singh Range.
The 42-year-old Jhajharia, who had won a gold medal each in the 2004 Athens and 2016 Rio Paralympics in the F46 disability category, was the only candidate who filed nomination papers for the PCI chief’s post.
Returning officer Umesh Sinha issued a list of candidates who had filed nomination papers for various posts, and Jhajharia was the lone name for the president’s post.
There will be no contest for all the major posts and voting may only be held for the five slots in the executive committee for which eight candidates have filed their nomination papers.
Jhajharia also won a silver medal in the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021. He clinched a world championships gold in 2013 and a silver in 2015 (both F46 category) as well as a silver in the Asian Para Games in 2014.
Outgoing president Deepa Malik was eligible to contest for the top post but she decided to back Jhajharia’s candidature.
Jayawant Hammanawar, an international coach and referee from Goa, is the lone candidate for secretary general’s post.
R Chandrashekhar and Satya Prakash Sangwan are set to be elected unopposed as the two vice-presidents, while Sunil Pradhan was the lone candidate for the treasurer’s post. Lalit Thakur and T Diwakara are set to be the two joint secretaries.
The eight candidates who are in the fray for the five executive committee members are: Sutapa Chakrabarty, Bhati Chandulal Tarachandji, Sandeep Kumar, Usha Manaki, Amrik Singh, Chandan Roy Choudhary, Shaminder Singh Dhillon and Singarapu Babu.
The PCI had found support from the International Paralympic Committee after the suspension. The IPC had said that it would continue to recognise the PCI as the only body for para sports in India.
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