The Indian Premier League (IPL) ticket issue has turned out to be a prestige issue for the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike councillors and they are training their guns on the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) after spurning the 250 passes/ tickets sent to the BBMP.
The BBMP, which had more or less turned a blind eye towards advertisement tax due to it, is now rolling up it sleeves and getting to work on the issue.
Deputy Mayor S. Harish said that KSCA's various “violations” would be raised at the Council meeting later this month.
Tickets rejected
The BBMP sought 450 tickets from KSCA but when it was given only 250 tickets (one each for councillors and a few senior officials), the councillors decided to return them all.
Meanwhile, alleging that KSCA had “mismanaged” the complimentary tickets, three Congress MLAs urged the government to appoint an administrator for “transparent administration” of KSCA. Ramdurg MLA Ashok M. Pattan claimed that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) allotted 20 per cent of the total tickets of the IPL matches to KSCA for its discretionary disbursement. “We don't know how the tickets are distributed. There seems to be a misuse of tickets involving crores of rupees. We want the KSCA to give details about complimentary tickets,” he told presspersons here on Monday.
No action
Claiming that elected representatives were not running after free tickets, he said that KSCA should do justice to cricket fans by selling/disbursing the tickets in a transparent manner.
In Assembly
“When we raised the issue in the Assembly about similar controversy during India-England World Cup Match in February 2011, the government assured that the KSCA authorities would be summoned.
“It also promised that such incidents would not be repeated. However, we find that no action has been taken either by the KSCA or government,” he said.
Accusing KSCA office-bearers Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad of not being interested in its administration, Mr. Ashok wanted the government to supersede it and appoint an administrator.
Black market?
MLAs N.L. Narendra Babu and B.C. Patil said that there were instances of complimentary tickets being sold in the black market. They demanded an inquiry into this and said that the government should levy sales tax on tickets to generate revenue.
