Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 6
Waiting since 2019, the process to fill the post of Joint Director, Sports, has again hit a roadblock as interviews, scheduled for today, were postponed indefinitely.
After getting no response from the UPSC on promoting local coaches to the post of Joint Director, Sports, (JDS) or fixing a criteria for filling the vacancy, the UT Sports Department had advertised the post in March.
The circular was sent to the Chief Secretaries of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and all heads of the UT Administration for appointment of the JDS on deputation.
Sources claimed that two candidates were called to the office of the Advisor to the UT Administrator for today’s interview. However, the interviews were postponed at the eleventh hour.
The sources confirmed that a former Joint Director Sports, who had applied for the post, along with a female candidate, was called for the interview.
Interestingly, the tenure of the Secretary Sports, head of the UT Sports Department, will come to an end later this month.
Secretary Sports KK Yadav is well aware about the structure of the Sports Department and officials want the decision to be made with his consultation, said a source.
“The interviews were postponed for the reason best known to the authorities. It’s been over 20 months now, but the post is still lying vacant. It’s pretty bad on administration’s part that instead of having a regular JDS, the post is being filled on deputation,” said an official.
The appointment is important in terms of no effort being made to promote coaches even after an initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1997.
Ad for post in March