Mumbai: Mumbai Cricket Association owes Rs 14.82 crores so far, to the Mumbai Police for the security provided for major tournaments including the World Cup, ANI learned on Friday following an intimation shared by RTI activist Anil Galgali.
"The Mumbai Cricket Associaton has arrears amounting to Rs 14.82 crore of Mumbai police for providing security arrangements in different matches played in the two stadiums situated in the city and are ignoring 35 reminders sent by us," Mumbai Police told RTI activist Anil Galgali. RTI activist Anil Galgali had sought information from the Mumbai police about the security provided for various cricket matches and the settlement fee charged for the same.
Mumbai police briefed Anil Galgali about the matches played in the last 8 years. These matches include the Women's World Cup (2013), World Cup T20 (2016), Test matches (2016), IPL matches (2017 and 2018), and other ODI matches and therefore MCA owes Rs 14.82 crore as security fees and the same has not been paid even after sending over two dozen reminders. According to Mumbai police, the Mumbai Cricket Association has paid a fee of only Rs 1.40 crore for the 2018 IPL cricket match in the last 8 years.
However, the fees for cricket matches from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020, have not been recovered so far as the government of Maharashtra has not issued an order on how much fee to be charged. Recently, Sharad Pawar has demanded Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for waiving the dues. Mumbai police have claimed that 35 reminders have been sent to the president of the Mumbai Cricket Association to pay the dues and a letter is also written to the Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department for not paying the fee by the Mumbai Cricket Association.
Notably, Anil Galgali has written to the Chief Minister, Home Minister, Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department, and Police Commissioner demanding that an FIR be lodged against the Mumbai Cricket Association for not paying the outstanding amount and to confiscate the property of the association by the district collector so that the dues can be recovered. (ANI)
