Mumbai University’s director of physical education (sports), Prof UN Kendre, was locked up in the toilet of his office for two to three hours on Friday by the members of Yuva Sena, youth wing of Shiv Sena.
They claimed that the official had failed been apathetic to the needs of the university’s archers, who travelled to Patiala for the Inter-University Tournament.
Since the trials were held a couple of days before the tournament that got underway on Thursday, November 10, it was difficult for the department to get confirmed railway tickets.
Hence, the archers, with equipments worth lakhs of rupees, travelled in the sleeper class sitting next to the toilets. The delay in the trials also saw them miss a couple of events that could affect their position in the ongoing tournament.
University senate member from Yuva Sena, Pradip Sawant said, “At first the administration was so reluctant to send our players to Patiala, that they did not book the tickets. After our constant reminders to vice chancellor and to Kendre, they booked the tickets, which were not confirmed, two days prior to the competition.
“The archers had to sit near the toilet in the train for 24 hours and today we showed Kendre how it feels to get locked inside the toilet for two-three hours,” he added.
The activists, after locking Kendre, took the keys away and the authorities had to break the lock and let the official out.
Prior to locking him inside the toilet, the Sainiks made Kendre sign on a written apology. “We have taken a written apology from him and he has promised that such thing will not happen in future,” said Sawant.
When DNA contacted Kendre, he said, “I have been asked not to comment on the incident by the vice chancellor and the registrar,” he said.
One of the archers, a part of the eight-member team, in Patiala threw more light on the difficulties they faced. “First of all, the selection trials took place only a couple of days before the tournament, hence we reached late and missed a few events,” he said on the condition of anonymity.
“Also the travel arrangements have not been up to the mark. We had to travel in sleeper class and sit next to toilets with our expensive equipments. Due to lack of space, we had to give priority to our equipments. We also had a fight with the other commuters because they were trying to sit on our equipments and any damage to it could have cost us heavily,” added the archer.
Another archer said, “This is nothing new. These things have happened before. Everything happens in the last minute,” he said.
—With inputs from Alok Deshpande
