KOZHIKODE: Even as the agitation by athletes before the Secretariat, alleging denial of jobs promised by the government, entered the sixth day, Olympian PT Usha said that the medal winners should not be pushed towards agitation.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Usha said if the government had promised jobs to sportspersons, then it should be honoured.
“Sportspersons won the medals for the state and the country with their sweat and toil. They should not be pushed towards agitation once the jubilation over their achievements has subsided,” she said.
Replying to a question, she said that the prospects of securing a government job is definitely a motivation for young aspiring sportspersons to go for more. Making them take up agitations would negatively affect the sports sector in state, she said.
“Most athletes hail from not so well-off families. It would help them focus on their pursuits with peace of mind if they have a job,” she added. Usha said Kerala has a tradition of setting a model in supporting sportspersons by providing jobs and cash awards when such practices were not in force elsewhere. The state should sustain the name it has earned in the field, she added.
As many as 54 sportspersons, who had won medals in national games and other competitions, have been staging an agitation before the Secretariat saying that while the government had announced that it had provided jobs to 249 of them, only 195 got the job.
In March 2021, EP Jayarajan – sports minister in the first LDF government –had said in a Facebook post that the government had given jobs to 580 sportspersons from 2016 to 2021 as opposed to 110 appointments made by the UDF government during its tenure from 2011 to 2015.
