Kannada Development Authority Chairman Mukhyamantri Chandru and M.P. Nadagouda on Wednesday hit out at the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) for “insulting” the State legislators by sending a free pass with a value of just Rs. 49 — which is the lowest priced ticket for watching the matches being played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
They criticised the organisers of the IPL for neglecting the Kannada language during the ongoing tournament in Bangalore.
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Chandru and Mr. Nadagouda, both MLCs, accused the IPL authorities of “insulting” the legislators. Making it clear that the legislators had not asked for passes, they wondered what was the need to send them the tickets with lowest denomination.
The issue was raised in the Legislative Council during the last budget session and Council Chairman Veeranna Mathikatti referred the issue to Privileges Committee of the House.
Sports and Youth Services Minister Gulihatti Shekhar has said that he would conduct an inquiry into the issue and ask the organisers of IPL to desist from behaving in a manner which would hurt the feelings of legislators as well as Kannadigas.
However, KSCA justified giving passes of lowest price to legislators on the grounds of saving taxes. But Mr. Chandru and Mr. Nadagouda claimed that the KSCA officials evaded entertainment tax by issuing lowest price tickets to legislators.
They demanded that a house committee be constituted to examine how many passes had been issued totally by the organisers to all the VIPs and the nature of passes issued to different categories of VIPs. Pointing out that the land for the Chinnaswamy Stadium had been provided by the Government, Mr. Nadagouda said that it was wrong to insult the legislators.
Meeting
Mr Chandru said Union Human Resource Development Ministry is holding a meeting at Central Institute of Indian Languages in Mysore on April 19 and 20 to discuss the programmes to be implemented following granting of classical status to Kannada by the Centre on October 31, 2008.
