Published Dec 13, 2022 | 6:32 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 14, 2022 | 3:07 PM
Geetha Bai giving her petition to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. (Supplied)
It’s the never-say-die attitude of a champion athlete that has kept Geetha Bai running from pillar to post for the past 14 years. But now her age, apathetic red tape, and a corrupt bureaucratic system are slowing her down.
Geetha, now 47, has been chasing the possession certificate of a Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) site that was allotted to her under the sports quota way back in 2008.
Interestingly, she is also a BJP corporator in the Ullal Municipal Corporation.
The Karnataka government allotted her a 40×60 site under the B-category — meant for sportspersons — along with 14 others, including cricketer Robin Uthappa, in Bengaluru.
Geetha, a powerlifter, had competed in both national and international competitions between 1996 and 2017. Geetha has won three gold, 11 silver, and 16 bronze medals at the national level, and nine gold and three silver at the South India level.
“I have set a record in powerlifting’s bench press, cot, deadlift events by winning the championships 30 times in a row,” she told South First.
In 1999, Geetha Bai competed in an international powerlifting competition in Finland where she came fourth, close to a podium finish.
A resident of Thokkottu in Mangaluru’s Ullal, Geetha is singlehandedly raising her late brother’s school-going children. Her brother died of a cardiac arrest a few years ago.
At the peak of her career, Geetha’s day used to start at 5 am when she got ready to catch the first bus to Mangala Stadium. She practiced till 9 am, before proceeding to the fish market where she sold plastic bags.
She travelled to various parts of the country by train to attend national competitions. It was with money she saved that Geetha attended the international powerlifting sports meet in Finland.
She had been selected more than a dozen times to participate in international sport meets, but had to opt out due to lack of sponsorship.
“Officials from the Sports Ministry would ask me to participate spending my own money, and that later they would reimburse it. I have submitted several bills for reimbursement but they have not given me a single penny,” Geetha told South First.
Letter to the President of India
“Earlier, they (the government officials) would say that I had not passed 10th, and that was why I was not getting a government job. I have not only passed SSLC but also complete my B.Com graduation,” Geetha said.
Seeing her hard work, a few Good Samaritans in the fish market pooled in some money and opened a shop for her at the market entrance.
She then gradually started to coach youngsters in powerlifting and was active in social services, helping the under-privileged in her area. Gradually, she became a cluster leader in her area and then grew to become a corporator of Ullal Nagarasabhe.
In 2008, Geetha was one among the 15 sports persons to be allotted a free BDA site in the sports quota, but she could get her hands on the possession certificate since the lower-rung BDA officials were allegedly demanding a bribe of ₹35 lakh from her.
After running from pillar to post for many years attempting to get what was rightfully her’s, Geetha Bai approached an NGO — Zindagi Public Charitable Trust in Bengaluru — which is now helping her to reach out to top officials in the Sports Ministry and the government to get her the site.
Letter to the PMO
In November 2019, Geetha Bai had submitted the requisite documents along with the allotment letter to the concerned officials, but there was no progress on that.
Later, when she approached the BDA office, she was told that they had lost her file which even had a recommendation letter from the then chief minister BS Yeddyuruppa. Geetha Bai was then asked to reapply in October 2020 which, she again did promptly, but in vain.
“At present, they (BDA officials) are openly demanding ₹35 lakh as bribe to allot a BDA site in my name, and I don’t have that much money,” Geetha Bai told South First.
The NGO, at Geetha’s behest, has now written to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), President of India and chief minister of Karnataka — explaining the plight of a woman sportsperson in the state.
“The higher-ups in the BDA office are cooperative, reasonable and promising, but the lower-rung officials at the clerk levels are the ones who are the most corrupt and their clout, including political, is something that even their senior officials cannot do anything about,” said Kaleemullah R, activist from Swaraj Abhiyan, Bengaluru.
