Athletics Federation of India set to become India's first paperless NSF

Each state unit president or secretary was handed a laptop by the AFI on the first day of its Annual General Body meeting on Monday.

Amritsar: Athletics Federation of India (AFI) is set to become the country's first National Sports Federation to go paperless in its dealings with its state units.

Each state unit president or secretary was handed a laptop by the AFI on the first day of its Annual General Body meeting here on Monday.

'This time we printed the booklets and the necessary papers for the AGM and distributed to you all. But in the next AGM we will do everything electronically, we will not use any paper,' AFI president Adille Sumariwalla told the member units on Saturday.

'All official work will be done electronically. But please use the laptops for official purposes only. Nobody other than secretary or president himself can use it,' he added.

The AFI has also decided to stop holding opening and closing ceremonies in national events.

'We should spend the money spent on opening and closing ceremonies in giving more facilities for the athletes during the competition,' AFI Planning Commission Chairman Lalit Bhanot said.

'These ceremonies are also unnecessary distractions to the athletes.' Sumariwalla also informed that the AFI now has nearly one lakh athletes with Unique Identification numbers.