New Delhi: The International Olympic Committee has fixed the dates of the joint meeting with the Indian Olympic Association and Sports Ministry in the second week of next month to find a way towards resolving the issues that led to the country's ban from the Olympic family.
In a letter written to VK Malhotra, the acting chief of the IOA before it was banned on December 4 last year, and IOC member in India Randhir Singh, the IOC said the joint meeting could be held on April 11, 12, 13 or 16 at its headquarters in Lausanne.
"Thank you very much for your letter of 6 March. Please note that we would be available for a joint meeting in Lausanne on 11, 12, 13 or 16 of April," the letter said.
"We therefore request that you coordinate with the Sports Ministry and you confirm a suitable date to us by the end of this week," said the letter written jointly by Pere Miro, NOC relations director of the IOC, and Husain Al-Musallam, director general and technical director of Olympic Council of Asia.
"We thank you also for your efforts to ensure that some sort of consensus is reached with the Sports Ministry prior to this joint meeting. We are optimistic that, with the cooperation of all concerned parties, a reasonable agreement and roadmap can be drafted to resolve the situation," it said.
Last week, the IOC had asked the IOA in a letter to fix the dates of the joint meeting before the end of this month. But, it is learnt that Malhotra had sought time and requested for the meeting to be held next month.
The Olympic parent body had said that the meeting would discuss all the pending issues with the aim to hold a free and fair election under a revised IOA constitution.
Meanwhile, in the latest letter, the IOC also asked the two Indian officials to ensure that the functions of the suspended IOA were carried out by legitimate representatives.
"... make sure that every action on behalf of suspended IOA is carried out by its legitimate representatives (as it was before the suspension of the IOA) and that no one associates him/herself with any illegal activity and/or any illegitimate individual purportedly representing the suspended IOA," said the IOC.
The IOA was banned by the IOC on December 4 last just a day before the controversy-marred elections of the Indian sports apex body for going ahead with the polls under the government's Sports Code.
The suspended IOA had gone ahead with the elections despite being told by the IOC against doing that, maintaining that it had applied the Sports Code in its elections under orders from the Delhi High Court.
The IOC had declared the elections "null and void" and refused to recognise the newly elected office bearers. The world body had been making communications only with Malhotra and Randhir since then.
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