Sports to stay in State list

Bowing to the pressure from various states, the Union government on Thursday withdrew the bill to put sports in the Concurrent list.

This was disclosed by Information and Broadcasting minister Mrs Ambika Soni, who briefed the media on the agenda before the cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh late Thursday evening.

Though the bill was pending before the Upper house since November 24,1988, a decision could not be reached due to lack of consensus.

"The cabinet has at its meeting held on 29.08.1988, approved the proposal to transfer the subject of sports from the State list to the concurrent list of the Constitution of India. The main objective behind proposed Sixty-First Amendment bill was to ensure effective implementation of National Sports Policy,1984, especially broad-basing of sports, to regulate the conduct and management of sports and to achieve all-round excellence in sports," the minister said.

Giving details of efforts made to get the bill passed, she said the sports ministers had made efforts by holding discussion in September 1983 and the efforts continued in 1996,1997,1998 and 1999.

Letters were written to chief ministers to support the proposal but very little came out of that. Hence, it was decided to drop the proposal, she added.