Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) councillors, cutting across party lines, on Thursday threatened to impose commercial tax on the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) for the facilities and the leasing of space for various events.
Hanumanthnagar Councillor K. Chandrashekar claimed that the KSCA had “insulted” the councillors by refusing to give passes for the recent cricket match (India vs. New Zealand) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here.
‘Why should we beg?'
“KSCA is benefitting from the largesse of BBMP, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board. They are supposed to give passes to all the 198 councillors. By failing to do so, they have humiliated all of us. Why should we beg for passes?” Mr. Chandrashekar asked.
In response to this charge, ruling party leader B.S. Sathyanarayana said he had contacted KSCA Secretary Javagal Srinath. “He had sent around 50 passes to the BBMP. I informed that we would need more passes as there were 198 councillors.”
Even BJP councillors Umesh Shetty and L. Ramesh claimed that Mr. Srinath had cold-shouldered them at the match. “He was rude and even said that KSCA was not obliged to send passes to councillors.”
Mr. Chandrashekar alleged that the KSCA was taking advantage of the BBMP's generosity and, by denying passes, it was insulting the Mayor as well.
Mayor S.K. Nataraj, who heard the councillors on this issue, said: “Let us not beg them for tickets; neither should KSCA give us tickets. We will levy commercial tax on them.” However, towards the end of the meeting, he changed his stance. The meeting then resolved to call the new elected body of KSCA for a meeting and discuss the issue. “We will meet with them shortly and then decide on whether to impose the commercial tax,” he said.
