The National Sports Council (NSC) is sending Tk 1.52 crore fund for the talent hunt programme at grassroots level back to the finance ministry after four national federations -- athletics, swimming, weightlifting and tennis -- failed to implement their programmes within the stipulated timeframe.

The finance ministry, in the last fiscal year, sanctioned Tk 15.10 crore for the training programme on the basis of demands of different sports federations.  NSC later allocated the fund to 31 disciplines in four instalments but those four federations could not continue their programmes despite taking one or two instalments. 

Bangladesh Athletics Federation failed to avail Tk 89.12 lakh out of Tk 1.11 crore as the then committee could only arrange the talent hunt programme in a few districts while failing to submit the expenditure of the first phase training, eventually losing its right to get the rest of the fund.

The swimming federation utilised Tk 31 lakh out of Tk 62.5 lakh in the ongoing talent hunt programme sponsored by the Bangladesh Navy but later the NSC disagreed to release the rest of money as the then general secretary Rafiz Uddin could not make the NSC official understand the concept of merging the two talent hunt programmes.

With apparent internal dispute among the executive members at the time, Bangladesh Weightlifting Federation could utilise only one instalment and failed to avail the remaining fund of Tk 24.23 lakh while Bangladesh Tennis Federation failed to avail Tk 8.23 lakh.

While speaking about this issue, the new general secretaries of all four federations said that they were not in charge during that time but tried their best to release the rest of the fund after taking over.

“TK 15.10 crore of the talent hunt programme was supposed to be spent by July last year but we were given six more months to complete it. Out of 31, four federations, athletics, swimming, weightlifting and tennis could not use their full allocation within the timeframe, so a portion of training budget is going back,” Badal Roy, the chief coordinator of the talent hunt programme and also the treasurer of NSC, said yesterday.

Roy added that 25 federations have already completed their talent hunt programme while football and shooting have yet to complete their final phase of training. He also added that shooting is expected to complete the programme by April 30 but football is yet to begin the final phase despite selecting 65 footballers from grassroots level.