'Kalmadi should have resigned as IOA president'

New Delhi: India's Sports Minister Ajay Maken on Friday welcomed Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi's decision to not continue in the post but said it should not be left to the wisdom of an accused whether he wants to stay on as an office bearer.

"By not insisting to continue as the IOA president Kalmadi has done the right thing, but at the same time he has not resigned yet. Any accused person should not continue as an office bearer. And it should not also be left for him to decide whether he wants to continue or not," said Maken.

Kalmadi, who was freed on bail on Thursday after nine months in jail, has decided against re-assuming his charge and asked acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra to continue in his prolonged absence. Kalmadi, however, has not resigned the post.

"So even though, while welcoming Kalmadi's stands that he is not insisting to remain as the IOA president, I think there should be a permanent mechanism in place. We should not leave it to the wisdom or will have accused himself (to continue in his post)," Maken added.

Maken said the Commonwealth Games corruption scandal has strengthened his will to introduce the proposed sports bill. The Sports Minister said the sports bill when introduced will clear all doubts.

"The sports bill will clear all doubts. The case has strengthened our views on the sports bill which we intend to bring. The bill will bring transparency and efficiency in the functioning of all sports federations with age and tenure norms in place. Proper system needs to be in place so that these things do not occur in future again. In the name of autonomy, no federation can allow corruption," he said.

"The Sports Bill will clear any such doubts in future and would not leave it to the accused himself to decide whether he wants to continue or not," he said.

"It further strengthens our views and any opponent of the Sports Bill should now understand that there are these kinds of dilemmas that they might have to face unless the Sports Bill is not passed," Maken added.

Kalmadi, chief of the New Delhi Commonwealth Games organising committee, and ex-director general V.K. Verma were granted bail by the Delhi High Court Thursday after nine months in jail.

Kalmadi was arrested by the CBI April 26 while Verma was arrested Feb 23, 2011 in the Timing, Scoring and Result system scam related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Besides, Kalmadi and Verma, nine others have been arrested for their alleged role in awarding a contract for installing the Timing-Scoring-Result system to Swiss Times Omega at an exorbitant cost of Rs.141 crore, which entailed a loss of over Rs.95 crore to the public exchequer.