Shillong, Jul 19: The state government, through the Department of Sports & Youth Affairs, will conduct an inquiry into the Meghalaya State Karate-Do Federation after it was alleged by parents of young karatekas that it had demanded a certain percentage from their state sports scholarships and cash awards.
Two members of the inquiry committee will be from the Department and two have been roped in from the Meghalaya State Olympic Association.
The MSKF and its related Meghalaya School of Martial Arts didn’t deny that it requested financial contributions from its athletes but insisted that these were purely voluntary and meant to help the organisations continue to be able to take martial artists to competitions in the country and even abroad.
Yesterday, MSOA General Secretary Finely L Pariat informed that the MSKF is not actually affiliated with the state Olympic association as it already has a local karate body under it, namely the All Meghalaya Karate-Do Association, which has been in operation for more than 40 years, far longer than the MSKF.
However, the MSKF has received support from the Department of Sports & Youth Affairs in organising tournaments.
“We cannot recognise two organisations in the same discipline,” Pariat said. “But it is the government that recognised the MSKF on its own. Now we are asked to be part of the inquiry after this controversy of the association’s president allegedly demanding money from the athletes.”
Despite not being recognised by it, the MSKF founder Donny Ranee is an Executive Member of the MSOA, to which he was elected through his membership of the Meghalaya Wushu Association.
Ranee has been issued with a show-cause notice by the MSOA and has seven days to reply. Pariat said that the allegations against him have “defamed the image of the MSOA.”
Failure to reply in the given timeframe could lead to Ranee’s expulsion, Pariat added.
(Meghalaya State Karate-Do Federation file photo)