Court cannot make policies, we need to do it as Sports Ministry: Kiren Rijiju

New Delhi [India], Dec 25 (ANI): Talking about sports code, Kiren Rijiju, the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, said that the court cannot go around to make policies, and the mantle lies on his ministry to make the necessary policies for the betterment of players.
He also said that the 2017 sports code tries to put each individual at par. The minister said that it is not feasible as each state has its own strengths and weakness. This should be found out and then the appropriate action should be initiated.
"Regarding sports code, I have noticed that people are not aware of it, but they are opting to comment on it. I would just say being aware of the sports code should be the top priority. There are challenges to each individual sport. Every state has a different challenge, their strength needs to be found out," Rijiju told ANI.
"2017 sports code basically says that everyone needs to be at par. But that cannot happen, people go to court. It needs to be understood that there are different challenges, I have always said that people who are aware of the sports should go to Supreme Court and talk about it. We are clear that we need to create policies, and the court needs to approve it. The court cannot create policies," he added.
The Ministry for Youth Affairs and Sports had earlier decided to constitute an expert committee to review the National Sports Code draft for good governance.
Following are the members of the committee:
Representative of IOA, Shri Ajay Singh (president of Boxing Federation of India), Sudhanshu Mittal (president Kho Kho Federation of India), BP Baishya (president of Indian Weightlifting Federation), Adille Sumeriwala (president of Athletics Federation of India), Pullela Gopichand (badminton coach), A Jayathilak IAS (principal secretary of sports, government of Kerela), Director General of SAI or his representative, Anju Bobby George (medallist of World Athletics Championship, footballer Baichung Bhutia, Olympic medalist Gagan Narang.
Earlier, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had rejected the new National Sports Code draft and had also raised questions over many articles that are present in the newly crafted draft.
The newly crafted draft proposed changes in the original 2011 code. It included the barring of ministers, members of parliament and legislative assemblies from holding office in the National Sports Federation and IOA.
However, while rejecting the National sports Code draft 2017, the IOA said that the latest draft does not include or specify the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI).
The IOA also said that in the code, there is no differentiation mentioned for NSFs that exclusively govern sports for the disabled and Special Olympics.
Talking about India's performance in sports in 2019, Rijiju said: "India is setting high benchmarks in different sports, be it football, kabaddi, wrestling, boxing, athletics. We are doing well in both traditional and non-traditional sports. The culture has improved a lot in the country. We are breaking records in different sports, we are bringing more medals as compared to earlier". (ANI)