Kathmandu, February 8:

The National Sports Council (NSC) today made public the distribution of budget and the list of the participants at the 10th South Asian Games and the 15th Asian Games.

The NSC said that it spent Rs 41.193 million at the 10th SAG held in Sri Lanka during August 18-28 and the Asian Games held from December 1-15 in Qatar cost Rs 9.719 million.

“The money we spent does not include the cost of those technicians and sports authorities, whose expenses were borne by the Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) and the organisers of the respective competitions,” said NSC member secretary Jeevan Ram Shrestha at a press meet.

According to the NSC, a total of 315 persons — 211 players, 36 coaches, 18 managers, 13 judges/referees, 16 journalists and 21 officials — took part in the SAG, while the numbers visiting Doha at the 15th Asiad were 96 — 49 players, 13 coaches, 13 managers, six journalists and 15 officials. The NSC revealed the budget and the participants of the two events as per the agreement with the National Republic Sports Organisation (NRSO), who locked out the NSC demanding the sports supreme body to fulfil their demands.

The other demands of the NRSO included fresh election of all the national sports associations, review the procedures of promotion and transfer of the NSC staff, and produce concrete proof against athletics coaches Sushil Narsingha Rana and Narayan Pradhan who were alleged culprits in the Rajendra Bhandari doping scandal.

Asked about the unrelated officials in some of the sports in SAG and Asiad, Shrestha said that the NSC did so to make Nepal’s participation possible without any hassles. “We did not wanted any tussle with the NOC before the event and we allowed them to nominate some coaches and managers as per their wish,” he said. Accepting the mistake on his part, Shrestha further added: “We have to do such things to make our relations smooth with the NOC.”

At times member secretary Shrestha was on joking mood. “How can you watch two movies while you have bought just one ticket,” asked Shrestha when a journalist enquired him about the NSC’s tussle with the 15 dissolved associations. Asked about the preparation cost of $20,000 allocated by the international body of skiing for the Winter Asian Games, Shrestha — who is also the president of Nepal Ski Association — said that he was unaware of any such budget. “The international body has not informed me about that,” he said.