Moa Jamir
In pleasant departure from its regular fare, in October, the sport pages of the dailies in Nagaland were interspersed with local flavors even sidelining other national and international events at times. For a citizen devoid of such spectacle, it was reflection of how games and sports are valued and followed diligently in the state and the papers were catering to popular demands.
The sense of jubilation, however, soon gives away to utter dejection as one follow the unfolding event meticulously.
The dejection has nothing to do with the quality of the player or events being played. It was rather a sense of shame as well as anger to observe how the participants were subjected to play in such sporting events under trying conditions.
For instance, look at the recently concluded NSF Martyrs’ Trophy or MFTA Mokokchung District Football Association (MDFA) tournaments which were held respectively in Kohima and Mokokchung in October.
Following the matches, observers would have noticed the condition of the grounds. On a sunny day, the players competed in dusty trials while they slugged over muddy ground on rainy days. For those supporting the losing team, it was double whammy.
After watching their team struggling in the trying condition, they have to suffer the heartbreaking losses. Perhaps, consoling themselves with the fact that their favorite players were limping all right after the game.
Almost all the sporting events in the state undergoes similar treatment.
That the state has not been able to provide a decent sports stadium even after five decades of statehood is a gross indictment of the government’s apathy and a grave injustice to all sports lovers in the state.
In our desolation, pointing fingers and faulting those at the helm of affairs is not only justified but imperative.
They were, however,found not wanting in their promises, but were acutely deficient in their execution.
Most recently, Parliamentary Secretary for Youth Resources & Sports, State Lotteries and Music Task Force claimed that “the state government is giving extra emphasis to the development of sports infrastructure in the state.”
Among others, new facilities such as synthetic running track, Astro turf football ground and floodlight will soon be added to the Indira Gandhi Stadium (IGS) Kohima, he said adding the state government will give “basic and quality sports infrastructure to all the 11 districts at the earliest.”
What the Parliamentary Secretary, however, forgot was that, the construction for synthetic running track and pole-vault/triple jump pits in IGS was sanctioned as early as 2011, and the Department of Youth Resources & Sports (DYRS) has reported its completion in April 2014 by utilizing Rs. 4.62 crores.
It is a different case that, a joint inspection by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in May 2015 observed caustically that the DYRS released the amount to the contractors even though the work was incomplete and the quality of surfacing was sub-standard.
Other projects in the state for sports are being suffocated under similar circumstances. Among other projects, the CAG found out that the Multi-disciplinary Sports Complex, Dimapur was not functional despite an expenditure of 58 crores and the Sovima Cricket Stadium failed to meet even national standard despite spending 45.43 crores.
Ironically, the DYRS took up the Dimapur Stadium project in 2005 purportedly with the glorious intention to promote world class sports talent and promised among other things - a main athletic stadium with football ground and a 400 metre track; landscaped central island; archery; swimming pool; air conditioned indoor stadium; and most amazingly a helipad.
It still remains a glorious illusion besides burning 58 crores so far without any concrete progress in reality. A complete reading of the CAG report on DYRS resembles a dummy guide to ‘How not to complete a project and get away with it.'
As rightly observed by an ESPN article on the first Naga Olympian, Dr. T. Ao, “There is no statue of the man in his state... No postage stamp, no physical reminder of his life. Not much of a legacy either, barring archer Chekrovolu Swuro, who in 2012 became the second athlete from Nagaland to compete at an Olympic Games. Only the rumbling echo of a name that continues to linger.”
Forget about legacy, Nagas do not even possess a decent ground to proclaim proudly as their own.
For any comment, drop a line to moajamir@live.com
