According to reliable sources, two representatives of the Delhi Government — Principal Secretary, Public Works Department (PWD), Urban Development and Vigilance, Chetan B. Sanghi and Rahul Mehra, Senior Standing Counsel for the Delhi Government — are scheduled to meet Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Shashank Manohar in Nagpur on Saturday to apprise him of the developments concerning DDCA.
The Delhi Government is exploring the possibility of the Board appointing a committee to stage the Test match in the wake of some serious allegations of corruption against the DDCA. On Friday, a delegation from the DDCA met the probe panel of the Delhi government comprising Mr. Sanghi, Mr. Mehra and Punya Salil Srivastava, Secretary (Education and Sports).
‘Fruitful meeting’
“It was a fruitful meeting and we got positive hints from the panel members. The Government has assured us it would keep the issues in abeyance and allow the staging of the Test,” claimed DDCA treasurer Ravinder Manchanda, part of the delegation.
However, according to a senior government official privy to the proceedings of the meeting, at the core of the issues that the DDCA delegation was confronted with was the question of what the association had done, ‘if at all’, to promote the game in the Capital even as ‘several spheres of its functioning seemed to be rife with irregularities’.
Alleged interference, and ‘protection’, by the Centre and several agencies under it came to the fore at a discussion between the delegation and the three-member committee.
The DDCA, according to the official, was ‘categorically told’ that while the allegations of financial irregularities against it ‘were bigger than just those pertaining to the collection of entertainment tax’ it seemed to be under the ‘evident protection of the Centre’ through several agencies that came directly under it including the Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCDs).
From the lack of a completion certificate for the stadium, the official told the delegation there were four criminal complaints, a recent Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry, fire safety clearance issues, violations pertaining to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIA). Most of these cases had been filed following complaints by Kirti Azad, a former India international and current Member of Parliament.