PCI mulls restarting process to regain recognition this week

The PCI was on their way back to regaining recognition from the sports ministry and thus kickstart India’s final preparations for the Tokyo Paralympics when the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting lockdown in the country brought all processes to a screeching halt.

“This coming week we are planning to reach out to the ministry and initiate the process,” PCI President Deepa Malik told IANS on Sunday.

Malik said that she had been waiting for all documentation formalities to be completed before meeting ministry officials but with the lockdown imposed, she is hoping that the Delhi High Court order — which validated the elections that led to the new committee to be elected — will be enough.

“I was just waiting for the compilation of all the documents. But we have a court order and most of that is sorted. The Delhi High Court sanctioned the new election and validated the new committee. They found it to be fair, as did the Returning Officer (retd. Districts and Additional Sessions Judge R Radha). Hopefully these papers should be enough,” she said.

Malik said that the PCI had earlier thought of waiting out the lockdown to continue the process. But with the extension of the lockdown and the situation around the pandemic outbreak in the country itself and with the PCI bank accounts continuing to remain frozen, it was decided to take the process forward this week.

“We were hoping that the lockdown would end soon but now we have taken a decision to start our formalities, to reach out and not wait for the situation to change any further because I have a feeling that the lockdown could be extended considering the circumstances,” said Malik.

–IANS<br>rkm/aak/<br>