Bowing to the pressure from various states, the union government has withdrawan the bill pending for approval in the Rajya Sabha to put sports in the concurrent list. This was disclosed by Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni, who briefed the newsmen.
Though the bill has been pending before the upper house since 24th November,1988 no decision could be reached in the house. "The cabinet has at its meeting held on August 29,1988, approved the proposal to transfer the subject of sports from the state list to the concurrent list of the Constitution of India. The main objective behind proposed Sixty First Amendment bill was to ensure effective implementation of National Sports Policy,1984,especially broad-basing
of sports, to regulate the conduct and management of sports and to achieve all round excellence in sports," the minister said.
Giving details of efforts made to get the bill passed she said that the sports ministers had made efforts by holding discussion in September 1983 and the efforts continued in 1996,1997,1998 and 1999. Letters were written to chief ministers to support the proposal but very little came out of that. Hence it was decided to drop the proposal.