Indian sports got ashamed at an international level when an Indian Para-swimmer was forced to borrow money at the recently held 2017 World Para-Swimming World Series in Berlin. The Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) failed to give the money which was sanctioned for the event. Kanchanmala Pande, a Nagpur-based para-swimmer who is completely blind described her experience in the tournament a ‘horror show’.
Recalling how she had to arrange the funds needed for participation in the tournament, she said, “I never thought I would face such problems. I had to take a loan of Rs 5 lakh so that I could participate in the tournament.” To get things worse, coach Kanwaljeet Singh was missing during the events and allegedly demanded £90 (Rs 7,462) as participation fee.”He [Singh] didn’t help me at all. I used to go back to the hotel just with my escort and
“He [Singh] didn’t help me at all. I used to go back to the hotel just with my escort and God knows where he used to be. Once, I took a tram from the tournament venue to my hotel and I had no money. I had to travel without a ticket and was caught by the checker who later fined me £120 [Rs 10,000],” Pande said.
Abhinav Bindra, Olympic gold medalist expressed his disappointment on this matter on Twitter.
This is UNACCEPTABLE. People must be held accountable. @VijayGoelBJP @narendramodi https://t.co/dBIrey8TYR
— Abhinav A. Bindra OLY (@Abhinav_Bindra) July 12, 2017
Despite all this, Pande won a silver medal in the 200m Individual Medley and beat the qualifying mark in 100m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke and 100m Breasts.
Meanwhile, Gurucharan Singh, PCI’s vice-president has dumped all the blame on the Sports Authority of India (SAI). According to him, PCI didn’t receive the sanctioned amount for the Berlin tournament from SAI on time. And this was the reason that they were unable to provide the funds to the swimmers.