Kiren Rijiju assured the national sports federations that ‘there is no plan to reduce spends on any of the verticals’.
Sports minister Kiren Rijiju assured the national sports federations on Wednesday that ‘there is no plan to reduce spends on any of the verticals’. Rijiju’s comment, made on his Twitter handle, came a day after The Indian Express reported about the minister’s meeting with federation chiefs where the issue of salary cuts of foreign coaches came up for discussion.
A senior federation representative present at the meeting had told this paper that the idea was put on hold after the federation representatives raised fears that a pay cut might result in a mass exodus of coaches. A Sports Ministry official, present at the meeting, too had confirmed this.
Reacting to the report, Rijiju tweeted: “The news is incorrect. There is no plan to reduce spends on any of the verticals. All future decisions will be made keeping the best interests of all stakeholders in mind & in discussion with NSFs. I conveyed to NSFs in yesterday’s VC.”