Remember the Indian school girls' contingent, which was in Australia to participate in the Pacific School Games and denied transportation by the authority?
One of them, who was reportedly a footballer, tragically drowned off a city beach, in Adelaide, a top official of the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) said, the Hindustan Times reported. The deceased, Nitisha Negi, 15, hailed from Delhi. On Sunday (Dec 10) evening, she went to the beach with four other girls at Holdfast Marina at Glenelg when the accident occurred, the Guardian reported on Monday.
Lifesavers came to rescue but were unable to trace Nitisha until Monday morning when her body was pulled out of the water. The rest were 4 rushed to the nearest hospital but one of them is said to be in critical condition.
The girls were part of the five Indian footballers. After the completion of the Games, they seemed to have gone for an outing. The Sports Ministry has ordered an inquiry into the matter.
SGFI Secretary General Rajesh Mishra confirmed to PTI, "We have got the message from Australia that the dead body of the girl was recovered this morning after a massive search operation. It is a very unfortunate incident and I send my heartfelt condolences to her family."
"Before returning home, the sports manager had taken some players to sea beach last evening. Out of them five girls from the football team had gone down into the seawater and were taking selfies. They must not have seen a huge wave coming from behind. They fell down and all the five were swept away," he said.
"Helicopters came and the four girls were taken to nearby hospitals but the fifth one went missing. The local Australian officials continued the search and I can confirm that the dead body of the fifth girl was found this morning," Mishra added.
The Matildas captain, Melissa Barbieri, tweeted, revealing her identity as a footballer:
A couple of days ago a viral video on Twitter. It showed the female players complaining of lack of transportation to reach the event venue in Adelaide. Due to the delay, they were utterly embarrassed.
SGFI sent a 120 members Indian contingent in U-18 teams. Six disciplines including hockey, football and softball traveled for the invitational event. It was jointly organised by the Australian government and School Sports Australia.
These Games were not supported by the International School Sports Federation, the parent international body.
According to sources, the selected girls reportedly paid Rs 2.5 lakhs each to be part of this delegation. Further they stated that the girls weren't overseen as the officials were sightseeing rather than supervising them.
When asked the reason for those school girls to venture around the dangerous area of the beach, Mishra claimed, "We have sent an official of the SGFI to probe the matter and the federation will take action on the basis of that report.
"It is a matter involving the death of a person and so the local Australian police will deal with the issue. Of course, the Indian High Commission is also involved. Sports Ministry has also ordered an inquiry and we have been told to submit some documents and we have done that," he said.
The Sports Ministry tweeted, sharing condolences:
"This is not recognised by the ISF but we have done nothing wrong while participating in the event. In fact, the invitation letter from the School Sports Australia first came to the Sports Ministry which forwarded it to us," Mishra said.
He also added that the governments of Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh sanctioned funds for the Games.
"The state units of the SGFI have state government officials as members. So the governments of Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh wanted to send their school children as part of sports promotion."
When asked whether the SGFI got the funds sanction from the Sports Ministry, he said, "Under Sports Ministry rules you can take part in tournaments outside the country at your own cost. So the Sports Ministry did not give any funds, but the invitation letter from the Australian federation was forwarded to us from the Sports Ministry. So, there was no need to get sanction from the sports ministry."
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Feature Image Credit : sport-locker.net
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