chennai the state commissioner for the differently abled has issued summons to the area director of the tamil nadu branch of special olympics bharat a governmentrecognised organisation that facilitates sports opportunities for those with intellectual disabilities following allegations that families were asked to buy their kins participation in international games a group of ngos and special schools under the banner all india confederation of organisations for persons with mental disability met commissioner v arun roy on friday stating that many families were in the dark about the selections for the upcoming world summer games scheduled to be held in abu dhabi in march 2019special olympics bharattamil nadu sobt has close to 70000 registered athletes in the state in 17 disciplines selections for the upcoming games was completed more than four months ago and around 400 candidates were pushed to the national level many organisations were not aware the selections were on said d lakshmanan president of the confederation the group also claimed that three of the candidates selected for swimming had no disabilitythe special olympics bharat is recognised by the central government as national sports federation an ngo it receives funding from the centre to facilitate sports for people with intellectual disabilities and stipulates that the federation should invite government observers for its tournaments and selection processes the organisations urged the commissioner to order an incamera proceeding as families of some of the participants were willing to testify how area director paul devasagayam asked them for money to buy a place for the children in national and international sports events the amount they said ranged from rs 5000 to rs 50000 arun roy hearing the petitioners wrote to devasagayam seeking an explanation by july 5 when toi contacted devasagayam he dismissed the allegations describing it a smear campaign against him our district committees sent out the invite to at least 25 organisations in each district in addition we sent out messages on whatsapp groups and displayed it on our website he said they received 800 applicants of who 400 were selected when asked about the three candidates without disabilities who were selected devasagayam said it was part of the mandate in special olympics we have been asked to select children who have no disability to make these games more socially inclusive the three candidates two from sivagangai and one from ramanathapuram are part of the football team not swimming he said