Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Navi Mumbai police are charging too much, says BCCI' that was published in Newsband

Navi Mumbai police are charging too much, says BCCI

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai police are charging excessively high for security during IPL matches held at D Y Patil Stadium, accused Board of Control for Cricket in India. BCCI has urged the Home Secretary of Maharashtra to fix reasonable rates, comparable to those charged by other states.

Santosh Pachlag had filed a public interest litigation regarding non-payment of over Rs 5 crore by BCCI to the state police on account of security for IPL matches played at DY Patil Stadium. The hearing had taken place at High Court. The court had allowed BCCI to make an appeal to Home Secretary of Maharashtra.

Earlier Mumbai Cricket Association had approached home minister RR Patil on the issue, but in vain.

In its representation to the Home Secretary of the state, BCCI has requested that charges should be based on the actual deployment of policemen. It also said that it is not liable to pay the charges, but agreed in the interest of the sport. The cricket board has said that charges for 2010 season are to be paid by DY Patil Academy administration, while for 2011 such charges are to be paid by Sahara Adventure Sports Ltd, the owners of Pune Warriors India.

In response to BCCI's representation, petitioner Pachlag has written to the home secretary through his lawyer Ganesh Sovani that IPL and BCCI can not be separated. According to Pachlag, BCCI can not refrain from paying the charges. He further said that BCCI should go by the norms for provision of such security as laid down in a circular dated December 10, 2010, issued by Ambalal Verma, the then Additional Director General of Police.

The high court had directed the home secretary to decide on the BCCI's representation by March 11 and that the next hearing in the high court would be on March 13.