KATHMANDU, Dec 1: Ruling Nepal Communist Party (UML) announced its sports wing amid controversy within the party. The organization named ´Nepal Confederation of Sports (NECOS)´, chaired by Purushottam Paudel, organized a press conference and announced its 75 member central committee.
The Committee consist political and sporting figures. Bijay Rai is Vice-Chairman of the committee where Laxman Shrestha is General-Secretary and includes sporting figures like Nayana Shakya.
NECOS aims for development of result oriented sporting environment. “State and politics have ignored sports and we want them to focus on it”, said NECOS President Paudel.
“Sports can be the medium of national integrity but political forces are unaware of this. Therefore, UML steps ahead with NECOS”, added Paudel. The committee was formed under the initiation of alternative member of UML central committee Jiwan Ram Shrestha. Shrestha is chief of sports department of UML as well as General-Secretary of the Nepal Olympic Committee and former member-secretary of the National Sports Council.
During the press conference, a group of dissatisfied UML cadres about the committee formation tried to disturb the program. The group lead by Santosh Shrestha claimed that the newly formed committee had ignored sporting figures as well as genuine UML cadres. “All the members are appointed in his own will by Jiwan Ram Shrestha”, claimed Santosh.
However, Jiwan Ram denied the allegations. “All friends are eager to work under NECOS banner and we could not accommodate all of them in central committee. We will take them on other sub committees. This is not controversy. It is the sign of how effective our organization is going to be”, answered Jiwan Ram.
However, UML sources claimed that the committee has close affiliation towards UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal. Two months ago, another UML fraction, near to leader KP Oli, had formed ´Madan Bhandari Sports Academy´.
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