NSC Member Secretary Yubaraj Lama is the patron of the newly-reshuffled 30-member NKF ad hoc committee. UCPN Maoist lawmaker and YCL Kathmandu in-charge Chandra Bahadur Thapa has been nominated as the senior vice-president while Gita Rana and Bhutan Rana are the new vice-presidents and Dhruba Bikram Malla is the new general secretary.[break]
Malla is the founder president of UCPN Maoist sports wing Republican Sports Federation of Nepal (RSFN).
Mahesh Kumar Shrestha and Sanulal Shrestha have been nominated as the secretary and treasurer.
Similarly, Maoist lawmakers Dharmasila Chapagain and former treasurer of Nepal Olympic Committee Upendrakesari Neupane are members among total 23 members.
The other members are Rabi KC, Prakash Mohan Dhaubadel, Suresh Silwal, Arjun Sharma, Bikash Jung Rana, Khumsung Gurung, Narayan Bahadur Magar, Om Krishna Prasain, Hem Kumar Shrestha, Balaram Mitra, Mukunda Bista, Gangalal Shrestha, Mingma Sherpa, Harisaran KC, Niwas Gopal Baidhya, Binita Chaudhary, Saral Sumsher Rana, Shiva Pandey, Pushpa Gharti (Bista) and Mardan Singh Tamang.
The new committee is assigned to conduct fresh elections within 35 days.
In a press statement, Minister of Youth and Sports Kamal Rokka belonging to the Maoist party who also holds the position of NSC president has accused the old committee led by Purendra Bikram Lakhe of violating NSC directives and working for personal interest rather than of NKF.
Similarly, the press release has also alleged Lakhe-led committee of taking players for tournament from abroad without taking due permission and tarnishing the image of the country at international level, not providing equal opportunity to all bodies under NKF, financial irregularities, irregularities in selection of players and distribution of black-belts, not conducting annual general assembly and others for reshuffling NKF.
Newly-appointed President Gurung who has served in the same position from 1991 to 2000 and as a general secretary since 2003 has said that he plans to bring stability in the karate federation in the coming days.
Gurung had led karate during Eighth South Asian Games (SAG) in which Nepal had won record 14 gold medals. "I had big role in including karate in the SAG. On that occasion, we gained historic achievement as well. But the situation is different now and the quality of Nepali karate is very low. Our main target is to uplift the quality of karate."
NKF Patron Yubaraj Lama opined that NKF was reshuffled with politicians having sports background, civil society members and other stakeholders. His clarification for including Maoist Lawmakers Dharmasila Chapagain and Chandra Bahadur Thapa was that both of them were karate players.
"Thapa is a black-belt holder in karate and Chapagain was also a karate player. We decided to involve them in the committee so that they would advocate for karate at the political level as well."
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