Abhinav Bindra gave suggestion to the Sports Ministry to help athletes travelling abroad.
Abhinav Bindra on Saturday took a step further to voice his concern regarding treatment of athletes and wrote a letter to the Sports Ministry, suggesting helpline for all athletes, especially those who are travelling in a foreign country.
According to a report by Mail Today, the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) left one of their athletes Kanchanmala Pande, who is completely blind, with no option but to beg in Berlin, where she was participating in the Para Swimming Championships, after the government money sanctioned for their tour did not reach her. Despite odds, Pande and Suyash Jadhav ended up winning silver and qualifying for the World Championships.
Olympic medallist Bindra, however, in a series of tweets, called for action against the culprits. In his latest tweet, he wrote, “The recent incident of our Paralympic athlete in Berlin raises a larger question of athlete management. Things like these continue to happen in Indian sport and leaves everybody in a bad taste and overshadows a lot of good work that is done.”
“In this regard I have a suggestion. The creation of a helpline for all athletes especially when in a foreign country to solve matters of extreme concern and having a contingency fund for unforeseen situations to provide just in time support to athletes would be a fantastic initiative to be taken up by the Sports Ministry.”
A suggestion submitted to the honourable minister @VijayGoelBJP pic.twitter.com/GJ4wbcqrkV
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) 15 July 2017
Many sports athletes have voiced their concerns regarding the matter, after Bindra’s tweets including Mahesh Bhupathi, Jwala Gutta, Somdev Devvarman, Deepa Malik among others.
