THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sports Council's talent hunt to find sports talents for their own hostels where children are struggling to get nutrition-rich food due to the non-release of money!

A special coaching team has been constituted to identify the best players from the state school sports meet to be held in Ernakulam today. However, it has been five months since the money was sanctioned to provide food to children in the council's hostels. In most of the hostels, children get food at the mercy of wardens and trainers.

It was in June that the money for food was last sanctioned for sports hostels run directly by the council and run under the supervision of school and college managements. When the arrears piled up, the coaches and managements had to go to the council and plead with the authorities to sanction the amount. There has been no action on it after that. The council says that the reason for the arrears is that the government has not released funds.

Menu on the board only

1. The hostels are supposed to provide food according to a special menu for the players to stay healthy for training and competitions.
2. The goods are procured from Consumerfed, Triveni stores, Matsyafed, Horticorp and Milma.
3. The stores stopped providing supplies due to the lack of money. With this, it was not possible to buy milk, eggs, meat etc. mentioned on the menu.
4. Many wardens and trainers borrow money and mortgage their wife's gold to buy essential nourishment to prevent the children from starving.
5. The council is also unable to check whether the food on the menu is being provided as the funds are not provided properly.

Employees without pay

It has been three months since the salaries of the temporary employees of the Sports Council were stopped. The permanent employees have not received their salaries for September and October.

Not new kits

In a series published by Kerala Kaumudi in September, it was pointed out that children in hostels have not been provided with sports kits in the past years. Following this, the kits that had been lying in the council for a year were given to the children. However, there are complaints that the same kit was given to everyone without providing suitable shoes and accessories for each sport.