The 10th National Games scheduled to be held in the Karnali region is again in confusion. National Sports Council Vice President Dhruv Acharya has recommended to Youth and Sports Minister Tejulal Chaudhary to move the national sports preparations scheduled from June 3rd to 10th as insufficient.

The committee led by him, who is also the coordinator of the competition monitoring committee, informed about the objective situation of the tenth national sports competition and requested to set a new date.  A National Sports Council (Rakhep) board meeting was called on Friday to decide on the preparation of the

competition. But the meeting, which started late, did not take any further decisions. The committee is of the view that due to the government's current preparations and timing, it is unlikely that the competition will be held in May. 

Acharya said that it was necessary to move the date due to the fact that it was not decided where the game would be played, there was no tender for the game materials, the selection of players had not started and the weather was unfavorable when the competition was conducted in the month of May.

'From the budget allocated by the Ministry of Finance for the competition, title allocation and LMBIS are yet to be done,' he said, 'the state government is also confused about conducting the competition in the current situation.' He informed that 12 points have been recommended to Sports Minister Chaudhary 11 sub-committees have also been formed for the preparation of the competition.

But so far the deadline of the competition has been extended three times. A month ago, the secretariat of the original organizing committee of the 10th National Games was inaugurated at the state stadium complex in Birendranagar.

However, the secretariat is deserted because there is no activity that should be done by the secretariat. Khushraj Dahal, head of the publicity department of the council, said that although the infrastructure in Karnali is in a state of preparation, there is a delay in the preparation and work of various tenders. According to him, the tender for the game materials is yet to be done, while the tender for the necessary kits and costumes has not been completed.  Karnali State Stadium, the main venue of the

tournament, has been prepared 3 months ago with an investment of Rs. The Karnali government has prepared to play 24 out of 35 matches in the national tournament in Karnali. Social Development Minister Ghanshyam Bhandari said that the provincial government plans to play 16 games including football in the provincial stadium, which can hold about 10,000 spectators.

According to him, preparations have been made to play some games in the Humla hockey ground and covered halls in Dailekh, Kalikot, Jumla, Rukum West and Salyan. He informed that the infrastructure of all districts is ready for this.

"The management of accommodation, health, security and local transport for the national sports is still in the preparation stage," he said, "We have prepared for the management of the accommodation of around 3,500 athletes per day in the hotels of the provincial capital Birendranagar, but the federal government is trying to move the date again by showing us administrative defects." The federal government allocated 600 million rupees in the budget of the current financial year for the

competition. But the Ministry of Finance has cut the budget, said Bhojanand Rai, head of the administration branch of the National Sports Council. According to him, in the first week of February, the ministry had sent a letter to the council saying that Rs 150 million had been cut. "After the budget cut, the preparation work according to the predetermined plan has also been affected," he said. Because of this, the preparation work to be done on behalf of the host province for the 10th National Games is also stalled. Sportsman Dhan Bahadur Khadka alleged that the council has been without officials for a long time due to the failure to agree on the distribution of shares between the ruling parties in Karnali.

The term of office of members including the previous member secretary Bishwamitra Sanjyal expired on January 6. The council is currently under ex-officio functionaries. Ramprasad Upadhyay, senior education officer of the Ministry of Social Development, has been given the responsibility of daily operations.