Shame! Indian Para-Athlete Had To Beg In Berlin For Expenses While She Played For India & Won Silver

Sadly, Indian sportspersons other than cricketers are treated shabbily by the government and sports institutions. In fact, they don’t get the treatment that they deserve; however, this time, the government apathy has dived so deep that it has ashamed the whole country.

Kanchanmala Pande, a paralympic athlete who is completely blind, was compelled to beg in Berlin as the money sanctioned for their tour by the government didn’t reach her at time. Pande is a swimmer and she was there to participate in the Para Swimming Championships. Such behavior of Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) raises some serious question on their working style. Despite such treatment, Pande and Suyash Jadhav won silver medal and qualified for the World Championships.

Indian professional shooter Abhinav Bindra took to Twitter to express his anguish on this matter and wrote, “This is UNACCEPTABLE. People must be held accountable.”

Abhinav has tagged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sports Minister Vijay Goel in his tweet, hoping that higher authorities will take swift action for the mess made by PCI. It’s really shameful to see that PCI has started playing blame games and is holding Sports Authority of India responsible for this unfortunate incident.

This is what Kanchanmala Pande told,

“I never thought I would face such problems. I had to take a loan of Rs 5 lakh so that I could participate in the tournament. I had to qualify for the World Championships and I don’t know why PCI didn’t understand its importance.”

Kanchanmala, who works with RBI, Nagpur as an assistant, further added,

“I was not given any official confirmation if I will receive a reimbursement for the expense I bore. I had to pay around Rs 70,000 (£844) for the hotel and more than Rs 40,000 (£482) for food.”

Mahesh Bhupathi criticized the disgraceful happening and wrote, “‘Against all Odds’ has been every sportspersons story in India at some level but this is an all time low .. #shameful #disgrace”

Somdev Devvarman also reacted over the shameful incident and tweeted, “Horrible stuff to read… Changes need to be made in the way we perceive sport and the way we run it… The current system is a shame…”

This is definitely unacceptable and whoever is responsible should be punished. What do you say?

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