One of the allegations by the expelled associations was regarding the secretary of ATTA, Tridib Duvarah, who has been holding the secretary’s post for more than four successive terms since 2009 - a clear violation of the Association’s policy of one being able to hold the same office for maximum six years (three terms) only.
“There is a major lobbying going on in the association. Otherwise, how can Duvarah be general secretary for more than three terms? The association rules specifically mention that one can hold the same office for only three successive terms. But Duvarah has held this position for the last four terms and was elected again,” said Pranabananda Das, a representative of DSA, who came from Silchar to participate in the AGM and was thrown out of it.
Duvarah, an employee of Oil India Limited, was a former state-level table tennis player and became part of the Association in 2005. According to sources in the association, Duvarah was “close” to former forest minister Rokibul Hussain during the Congress regime.
“After the assembly elections, when the Congress lost the ministry, Duvarah made his inwards to the ruling party BJP,” the source said.
“No way can it be accepted that a man who had been secretary for three consecutive terms get two more terms in the association. If required, legal action will be taken,” Kaushik Kumar Phukan, a former table tennis player and disqualified representative from Nagaon Table Tennis Association said.
“Besides, the newly formed committee is unconstitutional because the ATTA constitution stipulates terms of two years each and that a dispensation can be re-elected for a third consecutive term with two-third mandate before going on a cooling period of two years. This has been violated by the outgoing dispensation led by Hussain,” Phukan added.
Duvarah, however could not be contacted. G Plus tried to call him and meet him personally and also attempted to reach him through text messages. But despite several attempts, Duvarah chose not to respond.
Meanwhile, allegations of lack of transparency in the association’s audit reports are also rife.
“On the meeting, the audit reports from 2010 to 31st March 2017 were presented. However, it is missing one year. We think that there are some anomalies in this one year which they have missed. Why won’t the committee present the most recent year’s audit report?” Das asked.
“That’s why, we have asked for a proper investigation of the functioning of the association by a retired High Court judge,” Das added.
When G Plus contacted the TTFI general secretary, MP Singh, he said that the federation is "closely monitoring" the developments and will intervene when necessary.
"So far, we have received only one memorandum from a district association. It is a state affair and we cannot intervene unless some major violations are noticed. However, being the parent body, we will take necessary steps when it is required. We are aware of the developments. On scrutinising the audit report, we will decide if there are any anomalies in it," Singh said.
