No toilets, old equipment ail Perambur railway stadium
Sportspersons face hassles to enter the stadium due to internal politics
The officers of SRSA are inefficient -V.Baskaran, Olympic gold medallist
Chennai: It is one of the biggest sports grounds in the city, especially in the northwestern suburbs, and has nurtured many national and international athletes, who have brought laurels to Southern Railway. But the Perambur railway stadium, maintained by Southern Railway Sports Association (SRSA) is in a state of disrepair. While equipment for different sports is rusted and unusable, sportspersons face hassles to enter the stadium due to Mafia Union and Railway Administration’s joint internal politics.
The boxers use a ring which was bought 36 years ago and is virtually falling apart. The ball badminton ground was taken over to make space for parking vehicles, and the one used now doesn’t have a fence. Equipment in the gymnasium is old and outdated, and track and field athletes players don’t have a separate track or a long jump pit. Neither are there are proper changing rooms for the players, including women.
To make matters worse, the stadium does not have toilets on its premises. These are the list of complaints given in writing by coaches to SRSA during a meeting on November 25 last year. But six months down, sources say, no action has been taken.
The one sport that is fostered at the stadium is cricket, only because it is controlled by ‘union mafia’ N. Kanniah, general secretary of Southern Railway Mazdoor Union, the sole recognized employees union. SRSA only permits a summer coaching camp, after an assurance that it would be subsidized for railway wards.
The cricket nets have a board which warns other sportspersons, not to ‘encroach’. Rival unions say players are not allowed to practice when Kanniah takes his morning walk, an allegation he has denied in the past. Kanniah, however, did not respond to calls and messages to clarify the issues at hand.
V. Bhaskaran, Olympic gold medallist and former sports officer at SRSA, said blaming Kanniah is taking the easy way out. “If Kanniah is controlling the ground, what are the officers doing? The officers of SRSA are inefficient. There is no toilet because the railways engineering department has not bothered to construct one.”
Incidentally, SRSA’s secretary for the past four years is A. K. Sinha, the chief planning and development engineer. Sinha, who was shunted out of SRSA on Friday, told he was not answerable to questions on steps taken during his term. Though Sinha will be representing SRSA in Delhi on Tuesday, he directed the queries to his successor.
A senior railway official who has worked with SRSA said a shortage of funds was the reason for the declining infrastructure. Around 20 years ago, the stadium did have toilets; it did when a corporate group had leased it for division league cricket matches. “The ground should be leased to private players. But unions, who complain about the facilities oppose private participation,” the official said.
COMMENT
Railway Society Staff Union said, Mr. V. Baskaran’s comment in the matter only confirms the open secret in the Railways. The officers like him are always eager to shield the likes of Mr. N. Kanniah. Considering that Mr. Baskaran is the permanent returning officer to the elections of the Board of Railway Society, Chennai which is chaired by Mr. N. Kanniah for last decades nothing less is expected from him. It takes two to tango.
Courtesy: TOI