 DEEPESH SHRESTHA |
The National Sports Council has finally managed tickets for the athletes participating in the Asian Games set to begin in Guangzhou in China this Friday.
The participation of the Nepali team was in question after the Council failed to provide tickets to the athletes till Tuesday night.
Staff at the Council allege that officials were scheming for commissions till the very last minute, which led to the delay in purchasing tickets. After running around for the tickets all night on Tuesday, the Council succeeded in booking Thursday's tickets, much to the relief of the anguished athletes. But now the athletes will have to travel via a longer route. They will have to spend eight hours in transit in Kolkata and two hours in another town. If the officials of the Sports Council had acted on time, the athletes would have reached Guangzhou in four hours.
The Council will also have to pay an additional Rs 1.5 million to Gorkha Travels for the airfares. If the tickets had been bought two months ago, each would have cost only Rs 35,000, for which the officials are now paying close to Rs 70,000. The out of cash Council took a loan of Rs 7 million from the National Cricket Association at the last minute to send the athletes on time for the opening ceremony on Friday.
Almost everyone had refused to give the Council a loan earlier. The Cricket Association consented to a loan only after the Finance Ministry agreed to act as a guarantor. A staff member at the Council said, "No one trusts the officials of the Sports Council even for a sum involving a few million rupees because of their corrupt image." Sources from the Council also claim that officials amassed millions in commissions in a single night arranging the air tickets.
Meanwhile, UML leader Yogesh Bhattarai secretly left for Guangzhou with his wife on Tuesday while the athletes were still waiting for their tickets. Bhattarai has not even informed his party about the visit, Yubraj Gyawali, secretary of the UML said. Member of the National Sports Council entrusted with managing the tickets, Samim Miya Ansari 'Bablu', also flew to Guangzhou on Monday, leaving the athletes in confusion.
