Mid-Day: Mumbai: Tuesday,
21 July 2020.
Information
received through an RTI query has revealed that despite 30 reminders over the
past eight years, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has not yet cleared a
payment of more than '14.82 crore to the Mumbai police for providing security
cover during matches in the city.
The
matches include the Women's World Cup of 2013, T20 World Cup of 2016, a 2016
Test match, IPL of 2017 and an ODI match. The MCA has only paid '1.40 crore for
the 2018 IPL in the past eight years. However, the security charges for the
matches that took place from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 has not been
declared as the state government is yet to issue an order on the amount to be
charged. The Mumbai police has claimed that till January 4 this year they sent
30 reminders to the MCA president and said they have also written a letter to
the additional chief secretary of the Home Department on non-payment of charges
by the association.
RTI
activist Anil Galgali, who had sought the information through an RTI query,
said, "I have written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Home Minister
Anil Deshmukh and Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department, demanding
an FIR be lodged against the MCA for not paying the outstanding amount. Also, a
process of confiscating the property of the association should be started by
the district collector to recover the dues."
Speaking
to mid-day, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said, "We have written to MCA and
asked them as to why they are not making the payment. We will decide on the
next move after receiving a reply from them."
When
mid-day approached MCA CEO C S Nayak to find out why the association had not
yet made the payment, he refused to comment. On being contacted, MCA Secretary
Sanjay Naik said, "This information is from the Mumbai police but we also
have to check whether any amount is pending from our side."
Former
committee member of MCA Ravi Mandrekar said, "The police have provided
security cover for the matches, so MCA should have paid them on time."
No. of
reminders cops have sent MCA over the past eight years
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