"It won´t be fair if I said there have been no political intervention in my tenure," said Lama in an interaction program in the capital on Wednesday. [break]"New force can bargain with establishment during the elections of national associations and inclusion of few party cadres will not harm much," he added.
However, Lama claimed that the current NSC board has not interfered with any sports association. "The current Sports Development Act provides unlimited power to a member secretary. If I had to interfere on sports associations for the benefit of my party UCPN (Maoist), none of the sports association would have been spared," claimed Lama.
Lama stressed that the current NSC board believed in coexistence. "We want central leaders from all political parties to come forward and take responsibilities of sports associations. If it happens, it will promote political advocacy for sports sector," opined Lama.
Lama said that controversies regarding the election of Nepal Boxing Association, All Nepal Table Tennis Association and Nepal Chess Association are caused by internal problems and disputes within them and are not created by NSC.
"We´ll address the controversies through NSC board-meeting soon," said Lama. "There are two separate bodies of Nepal Gymnastics Association and we have taken initiatives to unite them. If they don´t unite within a month, we know which one to dissolve and bar from activities," Lama added.
On a separate issue, Lama said that the current NSC board would not politicize Olympic Movement.
"We NSC board members don´t have any intention to use Olympic controversy for personal benefit," said Lama. "In fact the Nepal Olympic Committee restored by Supreme Court´s verdict has not a single association as its members and, technically, it doesn´t exist anymore," he added.
Future Program
NSC Member Secretary Lama said that his team is now focused on organizing Junior National Games, Corporate Games and running training program ´Mission SAG´.
"We have to shift our focus to schools and colleges, if we want to ensure sustainable development of Nepali sports," said Lama. "Foundation of Nepali sports must be laid right from the school level," he added.
Lama also informed that the NSC has forwarded a proposal to the government to consider next two years as the ´investment years of Nepali sports´. "As the government has agreed in principle to host the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) in Nepal, we believe our proposal will be approved," said Lama.
Controversies over Sixth National Games
Lama alleged local political leaders of the Far Western Region of ignoring technical facts and politicizing Sixth National Games. He also said that the investigations being conducted by Public Account Committee (PAC) of parliament and Commission for Investigation on Abuse of Authority (CIAA) would prove his innocence.
"Some local political leaders, who are biased against UCPN (Maoist), had tried to assassinate my character, but the ongoing investigations of the parliamentary committee and CIAA will give me a clean cheat," said Lama. "I have not misused a single penny," he claimed.
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