LUCKNOW, June 27 -- The Uttar Pradesh government's ambitious plan to prepare future sport stars by roping in former Olympians and international stars in different disciplines for the training of GenNext seems to have 'backfired' as even before the expiry of their first three-year contract, a few of them have decided not to continue further due to a number of reasons. Currently, there are 10 such former Olympians and Asian Games medallists, who have been appointed by the state government on a monthly perk of Rs 1.5 lakh. They include MP Singh, Mohd Shakeel, Syed Ali, Rajnish Mishra, RS Rawat, Ranjana Srivastava and Prem Maya (all in hockey), Vishwas and Sumangala (archery) and Shamsi Raza (football). The services of former international athlete Radhey Shyam as a coach ended last year. The first reason is small but important interruption in their contracts as the Uttar Pradesh Sports Directorate recently chose to stop their remuneration for a month as it found that due to the closure of sports hostels and colleges as these former greats are not entitled for remuneration during the closure period. The second one is that local authorities allegedly give no respect to them, especially ad hoc coaches of respective disciplines. "There is no mention of non-payment during the summer vacation in our contract for the first three years. If it was there, we should not have been paid our remuneration in the last two years too. So I feel that it's a dictatorial decision of the authorities concerned and CM Yogi Sir should intervene as we are part of his vision to raise the standard of sports in Uttar Pradesh," said a former hockey Olympian on condition of anonymity on Thursday. "I will not be taking up this job in future once my contract is over next year as now I feel humiliated as well as insulted. We are not supposed to teach the basics of the game to the players at sports colleges and sports hostels, but to teach them the finer points of the game, make them mentally and strategically strong so that they can achieve higher success," he further said. "We should not be treated like ad hoc coaches of Uttar Pradesh Sports Directorate who get just 11 months remuneration every year as per a policy. We deserve more respect as we have done well for the country in the past and hold big honours like Arjuna and Padma awards," he added. However, another former hockey Olympian said the remuneration issue isn't that big, but the kind of treatment they are getting at different locations is something quite astonishing and humiliating. "The regional sports officers as well as their office staff, including clerks, treat us like an ordinary man and even the ad hoc coaches of those disciplines finds us a big threat to their careers and so they keep on cooking up their own stories to defame us," alleged the ex-olympian who requested not to be quoted. "At my centre, the inmates of the sports college are being meted out step-motherly treatment by an ad hoc coach as he doesn't want the inmates to follow my methods of training," he alleged. However, an official of the UP Sports Directorate said there has been provision of yearly monitoring of progress by these former international stars who are working as coaches in different disciplines. "Instructions have been issued to respective regional sports officers and sports colleges principals to give their yearly reports about these former greats, and if they aren't living up to the expectations, they should recommend suspension of their camps," said an officer who preferred anonymity. "In fact, these ex-stars shouldn't take their jobs lightly and they too are answerable to the government, if not performing up to the mark. Nobody is being spared. After all, it's public money which they are getting," he said, claiming, "In reality, barring a few, most of them aren't up to the mark."...