Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Navi Mumbai police scores over BCCI' that was published in Newsband

Navi Mumbai police scores over BCCI

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Friday questioned the Maharashtra government and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over the non-payment of pending dues to the Navi Mumbai and the Nagpur police.

A division bench of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice A.P. Bhangale was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Santosh Pachlag, stating that the BCCI owed over 5 crore to the state for the security it had provided for Indian Premier League (IPL) matches played in Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil stadium in the previous seasons. The state had appointed policemen from the Navi Mumbai and Nagpur commisionerate for security measures during IPL season 4 held in 2011.

For the three IPL matches played in 2010 at the Vidarbha Cricket Association’s stadium in Nagpur, the BCCI owes Rs. 2,30,33,821 to the Nagpur Rural Police and Rs. 23,22,826 to the Commissioner of Police, Nagpur.  The bill for providing police protection for the matches organised at the DY Patil Stadium at Navi Mumbai is Rs. 5,65,26,238. The BCCI has paid only Rs. 47, 53,000 to the Navi Mumbai police and, despite reminders, has not paid anything to the Nagpur police.

According to the petition, a total of 3,345 police personnel were deployed at the stadium during the six IPL matches. For the four-hour IPL games, the police personnel - mostly from the constabulary and inspector ranks - were pressed into service from the evening before the match and were released only on the morning. In all, they put non-stop 36 hours’ duty into security measures.

The court observed that the state exchequer should not be made to suffer especially when best security arrangements were provided during the event, on request made by the board. The court questioned as to why the issue had remained unresolved for such a long time.

The lackadaisical attitude of higher level police officers of the rank of DCP (deputy commissioner of police) and above, who sit in AC rooms and make the constables to sweat at the ground was also questioned.

The court further remarked that it was BCCI who had asked for the provision of adequate security and hence it is primarily responsible to pay the amount as demanded. It was of the opinion that BCCI should not have any problem paying the amount since it is a profitable organization.

BCCI then requested the court to grant one opportunity to it to make a representation to the state authorities on the issue. The court then allowed the BCCI to make a representation by March 4, 2013 to the home department secretary, Home Department who will decide on the matter after considering the petitioner's views. The matter will come up for hearing again on March 13.