Mysuru: A report regarding the allegations against Sports Authority of Karnataka athletic coach, Vasanth Kumar will be submitted in three days to the Director of Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports, Bengaluru, said T K Gowda, Deputy Director, DYES. Gowda was in Mysuru to meet and interact with parents, sports hostel girls and officials of DYES at Chamundi Vihar Stadium here on Monday, July 18.
In a three hour meeting, Gowda took feedback from all of them, especially from the athletes. Addressing mediapersons he said,” The department took a serious note of the harassment allegations against the coach. The director sent me to know the ground reality and also to speak to parents, students, officials and also to coaches. Some of them are not happy with coaching, some alleged that the coach is not giving training regularly and even equipments to practice. A few of them are happy with his coaching. We will be accessing the performance of the coach also. All the things will be included in the report which will be submitted within two or three days to director, DYES, Bengaluru who is expected to initiate action at the earliest”.
“Apart from this, I also spoke to the girls at the sports hostel to know their problems, if any. During interaction they said that they are happy about the food given in the hostel, but requested for soup and one more egg in their menu. They have also requested for a physiotherapist. We have considered their requests. Already, every day we provide them two eggs, morning and evening. They have requested for one more which we have agreed to provide and physiotherapist will also be arranged at the earliest. The government is ready to provide the best possible facilities to our sportspersons, at the same time we are looking forward to best performance from them. To achieve this we want to provide best possible environment to our sportspersons,” he added.
K Suresh, Assistant Director, DYES, Mysuru district was also present.
It can be brought to light that, during a meeting held at Chamundivihar Stadium few days back, parents of athletes whose children (daughter) are undergoing training at Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports Hostel in Mysuru, demanded the Department authorities to immediately remove Vasanth Kumar as the athletics coach for allegedly discriminating, harassing and posing various problems to their children. During the meeting, there was also a complaint that most of the time, Vasanth Kumar was not available for coaching and for the past two years, the achievements among the athletes had come down.
The parents had also threatened to approach Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and even to Manjula Manasa, Chairperson of Women Commission, if Vasanth Kumar was not removed at the earliest.
