The crucial joint meeting between the Indian officials and the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne today agreed in principle on a roadmap to bring India back in the Olympic fold. The meeting,which assumed great importance for India's sporting future,will now work out the exact details and the time frame to get the ban lifted since it was imposed on December 4 last for India's failure to adhere to the Olympic Charter. A top IOA official,who is part of the delegation,said that the meetings have gone off very well and the combined meeting of IOA,Sports Ministry and IOC officials is now in progress to work out the details. "It was a good and fruitful meetings so far. We are hopeful of an early solution to the issues. A roadmap is being drawn for India's return to the Olympic fold," the top official told PTI. The meeting was attended by Sports Minister Jitendra Singh,Sports Secretary P K Deb,Beijing Olympics gold-medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra and Olympian sailor Malav Shroff. The IOA delegation comprised of Archery Association of India vice-president Tarlochan Singh,Squash and Racket Federation President N Ramachandran,Kayaking and Canoeing chief S Regunathan,Hockey India Secretary General Narinder Batra and Jharkhand Olympic Association head R K Anand. The run-up to the meeting has been marred by the dramatic pullout of IOA Acting President V K Malhotra and IOC Member in India,Randhir Singh. The two decided to boycott the meeting after the IOC agreed to include Batra and Anand in the IOA delegation for the meeting,in addition to the four-member list submitted earlier. It is also learnt that the Olympic Council of Asia,which had only yesterday asked the IOC not to interact with the suspended IOA officials and postpone the meeting to mid June, was represented in the meeting by its Director of the Asian Games Department,Haider Farman.
