IOA indefintely postpones 36th National Games

The 36^th National Games- scheduled to be hosted by Goa from October 20 to November 4,2020- has been postponed indefinitely by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Narinder Batra  on Thursday evening.

The IOA President and Secretary  were informed after the National Games Organising Committee(NGOC) meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant that there was uncertainty over hosting the National Games as requested by IOA in its letter to Goa on May 15,2020.

“I sent a message to my President and secretary soon after the meeting stating Goa’s concern  over hosting the Games during the stipulated dates and that the NGOC had decided to write to the Sports Ministry in New Delhi for clarity and advise on the same,” Goa Olympic Association (GOA) secretary Gurudutta Bhakta told goalfest@blogfest.com .

 “ Goa is ready to host the National Games.My oficers have worked tirelessly to see that all systems are in place. But since this pandemic , we are not sure wether we should go ahead as IOA has requested us or not because the expenditure  on Operational Costs cannot be recovered. That is why we have written to the honourable Sports Minister for guidance,” Sports Minister Babu Azgaonakr told goalfest@blogspot.com.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in its letter dated May 15,2020 had written to the Government of Goa requesting that the National Games be held on schedule. “After assesment of the information in our knowledge ,  Dr Narinder Batra , senior officials of the IOA and I affirm that the National Games should be hosted in the same scheduleas was announced ,20^th October -4^th November 2020,” the IOA letter signed by IOA secretary General Rajeev Mehta had written.

“Members were unanimous in the meeting that it is too early to gauge how this pandemic will be behaving. The number of cases are increasing everyday. So , e decided to meet somewhere in the last week of July to take stock of the situation. We felt it is too early to take a call now,” stated VM Prabhudesai  Executive Director of  Sports Authority of Goa (SAG).

“We will require to spend atleast another Rs 200 crores as operational costs. Logistics such as transport, accomodation , food and the opening and closing ceremony are some of the things that will need to be worked on. These are things that we cannot expect a refund once they are paid for and therefore we are asking the Sports Ministry at the Centre  for guidance,” added Prabhudesai.