Vadodara: Indian Hockey Team who won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics has full support from the Orissa government which has become a sponsor of men and women forces for the past five years.
While the Gujarat government organizes Khel Mahakumh to promote sports, hockey players have been subject to poor treatment in Vadodara.
Forgot to support our national game, the hockey player from the city was thrown out of the historic Bhavan Ground in 2017 as Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) imposed a large commercial tax on the property.
“We train hockey players who aspire to low costs.
This is not a commercial activity because we don’t even benefit.
While we expect government support, the Civic body sealed the ground,” said Amardeep Singh, Secretary, the Baroda District Hockey Association (BDHA) .
“Vadodara has become a hub for hockey in Gujarat and when Bhavan Ground has produced a Govant Olympian cave and hundreds of national players too.
Moral Hockey players are very affected because of VMC’s actions.
We don’t even have the right place for years to practice?” Regretfully Singh.
It was in 2013 that VMC was the first to seal the vast land of hockey and commercial tax more than RS 30 lakh was slapped on the property owned by the Royal Gaekwad family.
Land opened later but in the following years, taxes continued to increase with interest rates and VMC again sealed 8,000 square feet in 2017 when the contributions were delayed to touch Rs 64 Lakh.
While the civilian body quotes technically by saying that taxes for all playgrounds in the city are rated at the commercial level, the Hockey Association argues that they cannot pay large taxes because they train young people, many of them from bad backgrounds, free.
In 2018, Scion Royal Samarjitsinh Gaekwad paid Rs 32 lakh to tax and sealing the ground.