Milkha Singh’s efforts for a synthetic running track in the city went in vain as his proposal, which he had made during his 21-year tenure as head of Chandigarh athletics body, couldn’t see the light of day due to ‘apathy’ from the administration. This laxity shouts louder when the Sports department denies having received any request from Late Shri Milkha Singh in a reply to an RTI sought by RK Garg.
Milkha, who lost his life to post-COVID complications in PGI Chandigarh on 18 June 2021, was the president of Chandigarh Athletics Association (CAA) from 1978 to 1999.
“He (Milkha Singh) gave a proposal for a synthetic track to be laid in Sector 7 Sports Complex in the early 1990s. He even met officials in the Chandigarh administration but nothing concrete happened so far,” Shiv Kumar Joshi, a top athletics coach in Chandigarh, told The Daily Guardian.
Joshi adding further said that they with some coaches collected money of Rs. 1 Crore and submitted it to the engineering dept. Money kept lying with the dept but never been used by them, then it could have been relapsed, he added.
Also, Joshi with other coaches, used to meet the Architecture department for track drawings, they had submitted many drawings to the department, but the Administration never paid any heed to the matter, even after 21 years.
Besides a seven-lane cinder track, the Sector 7 Sports Complex also has facilities for basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics. There are three 400m running tracks, including a grassy ground, in Sector 46 Sports Complex but there is no synthetic track in Chandigarh.
It was “Sir’s (Milkha Singh) dream” to have the artificial, all-weather running track in Chandigarh, says Joshi.
“A synthetic 400m oval has come up in nearby Mohali in Punjab and Panchkula in Haryana, but the proposal is still pending in Chandigarh,” added Joshi.