Tussle over control of Odisha Taekwondo Association intensifies

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jun 5:

The tussle over control of Odisha Taekwondo Association (OTA) intensified yesterday with the Santosh Mohanty led group coming all guns blazing against the Renu Mahanta group for organizing the state level competition.

Santosh Mohanty, who is the elected president of OTA, has termed the state level competition illegal, invalid and has threatened to go to court and cops against it.

“TFI (Taekwondo Federation of India) had ousted Renu Mahanta after moving a vote of confidence against him. He has no rights to form any committee without the approval of OTA. How can he form temporary committees on his own and organize a state level competition with such inexperienced people?” questioned Mohanty.

“The people who have been nominated as technical members and convenors of this committee have no knowledge of taekwondo. I have reservations on the transparency of such a competition. Given that the competition is not valid, we will take the matter to the court, if they use the name of OTA in the competition,” he added.

OTA has already lodged a complaint in Shaheed Nagar police station against the temporary committee members, informed Mohanty.

Byomkesh Prasad, the convenor of the temporary committee, however, claimed ignorance on any such step by OTA.

“We have been appointed by TFI. Renu Mahanta continues to be its president. We have taken up the management duties of the event as per his direction. This competition is absolutely legal. Moreover, Santosh Mohanty has been suspended by TFI. We are going to go ahead with the competition as per schedule,” said Prasad.