4 clubs disqualified for non-payment of annual fees, one for not producing registration certificate
MARGAO
It’s official. Of the seven clubs from North Goa registered with Goans Hockey, the governing body regulating the game in the State, only two clubs will be eligible to vote for the upcoming presidential elections which are slated for August 15.
According to sources, out of the five North Goa clubs not eligible to vote four of them had not paid the annual fees while the fifth one Sattari Hockey Club and Sports could not furnish the Registration Certificate from the Registrar of Society, as it had been misplaced.
Club officials informed that they have applied for a duplicate certificate and filed a police complaint of the loss of the certificate but all their pleas fell on deaf ears of the returning officer, who ruled they were not eligible to vote.
“The Secretary of Goans Hockey should have been active to make sure that the elections were held in a fair manner,” said Father Dominic Alvares, a member of Sattari Hockey Club and Sports.
Alvares has been a sports promoter and started the game in Sattari in 2008 and took it up again in 2021 along with Hockey Heritage Group Goa conducting Hockey camps in Sattari in the villages of Morlem, Keri, and Honda.
His hard work has seen fruits with the players trained and groomed by him and now playing for schools and higher secondaries of the area and one of them is Bhumika Higher Secondary School Parye, which will feature in the Junior Nehru in Delhi.
“Unfortunately, the most active clubs of North Goa are unable to participate in this (President) election,” lamented Alvares, who was recently honoured for his contribution to the game by the Association for Wellbeing of Elder Sportspersons Goa and who is transferred to Britona from June this year.
Information received from the Sattari club said that Petrisen Andrade, the president of the club, was in constant touch with the Secretary of the Goans Hockey and they are shocked to see their club is not eligible to vote.
According to the electoral college circulated by Goans Hockey with the registered clubs, only Goa Mavericks Sports Club and Don Bosco Sports and Cultural Youth Club along with the North District Hockey Association are eligible to cast for the elections which have been forced on account of the resignation of President Xavier Marquis, midway into his term.
Marquis, who was representing Sanguem Cultural and Sports Club, got elected as the president in the September 2022 elections but quit almost a year back from the post.
Surprisingly the Goans Hockey website still shows Xavier Marquis as the president while many clubs and hockey lovers pointed out that most of the data on the website is outdated and the site had not been updated on a time-to-time basis.
Incidentally, the Hockey India website also mentions Marquis as the President of the Goans Hockey on its website.
Marquis’ Sanguem Cultural and Sports Club is one of the few clubs from South Goa which have faded away from the Goans Hockey database after the businessman quit as president.
Besides the Sanguem club, another club which does not figure in the list of active clubs is Bambina Recreational Club, which had Valanka De Souza, Physical Education teacher at Bambina Convent High School Cuncolim and thus will not be eligible to vote at the Presidential elections.
According to information available, Abhay Bhamkikar, a hand-picked man of former MLA of Velim Farrel Furtado e Gracias is likely to be the president of the Goans Hockey.
Bhamkikar from all accounts has no connection but is a businessman from South Goa, it was not known whether he has any connections with any of the State level or national political parties.
The date for filing of nominations for the president post is fixed for August 2 and 3.
“The nominations for the elections to the post of President shall be proposed by one representative of the eligible club /District and seconded by another whose name is included in the Electoral College. Each Nomination shall be delivered personally to the Returning Officer on 2nd or 3rd August 2024 between 4 to 6 pm at the office of the Returning officer at G-4 Fatima chambers Opposite Fatima school Margao,” reads the notice sent to all the eligible clubs.
“By 4th August the Returning Officer shall prepare a list of the nominations received for the post of President and publish the same in the office located at G-4 Fatima Chamber Margao by 7.00 pm,” it adds.
The withdrawal, if any will take place on August 7 and 8, while the scrutiny of nominations will be held on August 6 in Margao under the supervision of Returning Officer Mildred Mendonsa.
