new delhi has the sports ministrys ambitious plan for creating an administrative service for sports been scuttled even before it could be debated in response to a question in the parliament on tuesday on whether the government had proposed to bring about changes in the national sports policy to create indian sports administration as part of the civil services sports minister sarbananda sonowal denied any such move was underway this effectively put the brakes on what had appeared to be a forwardlooking move during a time when indian sports administration is suffering from lack of professionalism and there is great resistance from national sports federation heads over bringing sports bodies under the rti ambit when asked whether the minister had any consultations with the ministry of personnel and state sports ministers in this regard sonowal drew another blank this indicates that he was probably not supported by his own government in his endeavour sonowals proposal was to be sent to the ministry of personnel in march which is where it appears to have met with a roadblock despite the setback sources within the ministry maintained that the ministers stand on creating a separate service for sports administration hasnt changed he still stands for creating a separate sports service he wants to continue creating an awareness that this service is needed to take sports to the nex level sources indicated we are very keen to have sports administration as part of our civil services there should be a cadre for sports services at par with the ias and ifs it will boost indian sports in a big way i will request the concerned ministries to make this a reality we will pursue the matter seriously sonowal had told toi in march this year many in the opposition feel that a separate administrative service cadre would help in professionalising sports administration in india the idea of this specialised administrative service had taken shape during the congress regime when the then sports minister ajay maken and his predecessor ms gill had mooted it within the national sports policy inviting former sportspersons and coaches to apply for administrative posts in the sports authority of india sai making them eligible for a grade equivalent to a class ii officer impasse over nonpayment of sai money to paraathletes sports minister sonowal expressed helplessness at the continuing impasse over the payment of outstanding dues to paraathletes by the suspended paralympic committee of india pci admitting that he had received complaints from paraathletes that they had not been paid the amount released by sai for participation in international meets in kuwait and malaysia sonowal said the frequent changes in office bearers of pci over the last four years and its subsequent derecognition due to mismanagement had delayed the payment the ministry had taken up the matter with sai which directed pci to clear the dues immediately the minister claimed