SHILLONG:
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, on March 22, said that it will take another six to eight years for Meghalaya to host the National Games, and it has nothing to do with infrastructure.
Intervening during the Question Hour of the Assembly Budget Session the Chief Minister maintained that it was not Meghalaya’s turn to host the Games as the sequence arranged by the Indian Olympics Association (IOA) has to be followed.
Replying to Umsning MLA Dr Celestine Lyngdoh’s query on whether the lack of infrastructure was the reason behind the failure of Meghalaya to host the National Games in 2022, Sangma said, “The IOA has different states in their sequence of order for hosting the National Games every two years and there are three states before us that are yet to host the Games; our chance will come only after those states finish hosting it.”
The three states include — Goa, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand. “In the next six to eight years, our chance will come,” he added.
The question was initially directed at Sport Minister Shakliar Warjri but when the minister said that the question was off topic, the chief minister stood up to inform the House that the government was on war-footing to put up infrastructure to host the Games.
“We wanted to host it in our 50th year of statehood but since we could not have it, we instead successfully hosted the North East Olympic Games,” Sangma said.