The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the CPI held demonstrations here on Tuesday protesting against the patronage the drought-hit Maharashtra was extending to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament.
The parties demanded that the BCCI give Rs. 2,000 crore towards the Maharashtra Chief Minister drought relief fund. “Maharashtra is reeling under a drought more severe than all previous instances of water scarcity. The government, which tightens its purse when the question of providing relief to the people comes, has no shame in patronising the cash-rich IPL with tax concessions and free services,” said the CPI(M)’s Shailendra Kamble.
“IPL is earning [big] money by organising cricket matches and is not even paying entertainment tax. All the big corporates who own the teams are earning in crores. We feel that it is the social responsibility of these companies to think about their social responsibility,” said the CPI’s Prakash Reddy.
