Shillong, May 4: The Meghalaya Games 2022, its 4th edition, currently underway in Shillong city has drawn lot of flak for the terrible accommodation facilities at the JN Stadium for the athletes. It was only when Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma personally intervened that things got better. But the athletes have been left with bad taste with the way things were organized by the Meghalaya State Olympic Association (MSOA).
The participating coaches and players have a lot to say on the ordeal they had to go through when they arrived at the accommodation venue. However, they are satisfied with the arrangements post CM’s intervention.
Yet, it may seem that after taking care of accommodation, CM’s intervention may be required elsewhere related to the games – food. Players are complaining about the poor quality of the food being served to them at the games’ venues.
Talking to Hub News, one of the senior players from West Garo Hills’s Badminton Team, who did not want to be named, said he didn’t even feel like eating the food after looking at it. He said the potatoes being served to them are of so bad quality that there are rubbery and not consumable at all. Overall, he said, he is very unhappy happy about the food and has been eating from local shops using his own money.
He is also aghast that MSOA had 3-4 months to prepare for the Games and was given sufficient funds, despite which they were unable to arrange thing in order.
Mentionably, Meghalaya govt is spending Rs. 2.23 crore for the week-long Games.
Giving more details about their accommodation, he said when they reached the JN stadium on Monday, they were stumped to see the abysmal facilities such as leaking roof, dirty washrooms, lack of beds among others. He said their team has 14 members with 3 female athletes but they were only provided with 5 mattresses.
As for the assistance from MSOA, he said there weren’t any officials in the area to help them witht their queries. They contacted their District Association’s president and secretary to sort the issue out but after 4-5 hours of no action or any kind of alternate arrangement and no one coming to them to provide them any explanation from the organizers’ side, they booked and stayed in a private guest house in the city.
However, since the intervention of the CM, the arrangements have been satisfactory and they have been provided with a lodge near their venue, he said.
However, the food quality is the current problem and it needs immediate attention.
Other players also had similar opinions and are extremely unhappy with MSOA’s way of handling the entire event.
About 2,600 athletes across 19 disciplines are participating in the sporting event being held from May 2-6, 2022.
