Major Reshuffle In SAI (Patiala) Leads To Voices Of Dissent

A drastic reshuffle of the Sports authority of India has resulted in a powerful voice of the dissent amongst the officials, with most of them questioning the decisions behind the transfer of the key administrative officers while the Long Term Development Programme (LTDP), Patiala was merged with Teams division.

After Jiji Thonpson has taken the charge of the SAI DG 3 months ago, when the second trip of transfers happened, a few more administrators also exchanged positions. These include Roqe Das, Radhika Sreeman, Sanjeev Sharma, SC Sharma and Dr. Prem Kashyap. All these administrators have either been transferred or moved to the new departments with an immediate effect in order to make the SAI more proactive and result oriented.

The Director General of SAI, Patiala, Mr. Jiji Thomson said that it is a process of restructuring the SAI so that the organization can be made active and more result oriented. Some of the administrators who were posted in New Delhi have been moved to the different centers of SAI in Patiala, whereas some of them have been moved to some new departments.

He said that a few more changes are also being planned up. The first trip of the changes was made in North East and now it is the second round, he added. According to him, a few more administrators will be moved while some other will be given new departments.

The explanation given by Thomson has not been quite satisfying for most of the office bearers of SAI(Patiala) who are questioning the reason behind the changes.

SC Sharma has not even completed six months of his service as a director in Patiala and has been made the coordination in charge. Karam has not even completed one month of his tenure as a Deputy Director in Aurangabad and is being transferred to Patiala.

On the condition of unanimity, an official said that Manmeet Singh who was promoted as the Director of NIS Patiala has not even completed 3 months and has been called back as the Director for equipments support and has also been given an additional charge of the Karni Singh shooting range.

The two major administrators Dias who was the Regional director of LTDP as well as Radhika, who was the Regional director of the Teams division, are being moved to Bhopal/Sonepat at the time when the junior level players are starting to bring medals to the country like the weightlifters.

Another administrator said that with the merge of the division of LTDP with the division of Teams, the future ambition of the Vision 2020 programme is in jeopardy.

Dias is being moved to Bhopal. The former Director General, Mr. Desh Deepak Verma started this programme. It is still in its beginning stage. Also the decision of transfer of Dr Kashyap from the Stadia division to operations won’t invoke any confidence, the officials believe.

However Mr. Thomson has justified his list of changes, which was prepared by him after his visits to the centers of SAI in country and also the views of regional Administrators.

Thomson said that the changes were made on the basis of the directive of CVC. Some of the changes were necessary as the guidelines of CVC need to be followed.