India setting up a national anti-doping agency: SAI


Bangalore, May 14 (PTI): India is setting up a national anti-doping agency with advanced equipment and the independent agency would be operational in the next few months, a top sports ministry official said on Friday.

 

"The Government is setting up a national anti-doping agency which will be independent. We have an existing dope control agency located at Delhi which will be upgraded," Sports Authority of India (SAI) Director General Ratan P Watal told reporters here on the sidelines of graduation ceremony in Diploma course in sports coaching at the SAI centre. India will follow the charter of the Copenhagen declaration, the International convention on anti-doping, for which New Delhi is a founder member and signatory in setting up the agency, he said. "It may be in a couple of months," Watal said, adding the composition of the independent board was yet to be finalised. SAI runs the existing centre at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in New Delhi. Watal said the Centre was finalising a plan to upgrade and improve sports facilities in the country ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth games in New Delhi. "Sports persons should be trained from now," and they should be trained in the same conditions as in the games, he said, adding all the states were being asked to formulate a plan to upgrade and build new sports infrastructure. A total of 76 students passed out of the SAI centre here this year, officials said.

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