It has been reported that Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is all set to amend its constitution, so that it becomes easier for its return to the Olympic in the near future.
According to a senior functionary of the suspended IOA, the changes in the IOA Charter will occur before 15th July. The key officials of the suspended body secretary-general Lalit Bhanot and President Abhay Singh Chautala were among the others who graced the meeting. Chautala agreed to conduct a Special General Body meeting in July to amend the IOA Constitution and finalize the election process too. Officially, a draft constitution of the IOA was distributed among the members including the proposed amendments in it and they have been requested to express their views on them. In addition, the members were appealed to send requisition forms to Chautala to call for a Special GBM in July to amend the constitution.
The meeting was attended by more than 30 representatives of various National Sports Federations (NSFs) and members of 22 state Olympic units on Sunday. All of them agreed to amend the constitution in unison. An IOA official declared that the meeting for proposed amendments will occur between 8th July and 12th July. It has come to light that apart from age and tenure, ethics will be a crucial area for the IOA to work on while amending the constitution.
Specifically, the amendments will not be applicable to NSFs, which will go by the constitution of their respective world governing bodies and would not follow what is written in the IOA statute. It was considered that all formalities related to electing a new body should be completed before 25th August, but the exact date would be rounded off next week.
According to the plan sketched out during the joint meeting of the International Olympic Committee with the Indian government and members of the NSFs including Sports Minister Jitendra Singh in Lausanne on 15th May, the IOC had instructed IOA to elect new office-bearers before 1st September.
