Raising his voice for rural and tribal players in the Rajya Sabha, Tirkey said: “Players from rural and urban areas do not participate in sports only for entertainment or fun’s sake. In fact they play sports to make their careers and earn their livelihood.”
Giving examples of some rural and tribal players who have represented the country at the international level but are now in a woeful state due to unemployment, he mentioned how international athletes are forced to sell tea and snacks and run pan-shops.
“It is highly saddening what do we want to give to our coming generations by showing this apathy towards our international players. This is happening because our government departments and PSUs are not filling jobs under sports quota,” the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member said.
“I would like to further request that government should interfere in this matter and all our distinguished sportspersons should be recruited through sports quota,” he reiterated.
He also mentioned that all the government departments and central PSUs have a provision of five percent recruitment under the sports quota.
Giving some examples of central PSUs in his own state Odisha who are not doing sports quota recruitment as per norms Tirkey said: “The central PSUs like SAIL, NTPC, MCL, NALCO, Paradip Port Trust, HAL etc are also not doing the sports quota recruitment as per norms because of which our tribal people are now forced to migrate for jobs.” (IANS)