No passes,legislators can watch final on CCI lawns

The state government will not be able to provide passes or tickets to all members of the state legislature for the cricket World Cup final on Saturday. However,alternative arrangements are likely to be made at the CCI lawns.

The state government will not be able to provide passes or tickets to all members of the state legislature for the cricket World Cup final on Saturday. However,alternative arrangements are likely to be made at the CCI lawns.

Minister for Rural development Jayant Patil,responding on behalf of the state government,expressed his regret that tickets would not be available to all members of the legislature. He informed that the House that the delegations of Indian President Pratibha Patil and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapakse were going to watch the match at Wankhede Stadium.

Two days ago,Congress MLC Subhash Chavan had sought a complimentary pass each for members of the legislature for the final. Chavan reiterated the demand on Friday and sought a clarification from the government.

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I do not want to keep you in the dark. I think it will not be possible to provide passes or tickets to all MLAs. However,the government can make alternate arrangement at the CCI lawns for members by installing a large screen,” said Patil in the Legislative Council.

He also said since the matches will be shown on television channels which have been awarded rights of telecast for the final,people should not fall for rumours. The ICC has allocated 250 tickets for the state government-ministers and officials-for the match at Wankhede. Since all legislators (288 in the legislative assembly and 78 in legislative council) had demanded passes,the state government had made a demand for additional passes.

In the legislative assembly,Sports Minister Padmakar Valvi said the land on which the stadium had come up belonged to the state and had been given out on a 50-year lease in February 1968. The rules did not allow any commercial activity on the land,he said,adding they ( the state government) would examine if such a use had been carried out and issue notices.

However,the NCP’s Shashikant Shinde questioned why the issue had been raked up now. The state government had also written to the MCA requesting passes for legislators from both the houses as per the protocol,said Valvi adding that he would communicate sentiments of the members regarding the passes to the Chief Minister.

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Meanwhile,hundreds of VIPs,including politicians and celebrities,are expected at the Wankhede Stadium. They would include President Pratibha Patil,her Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa and politicians from various parties such as L K Advani,Sushma Swaraj,Nitin Gadkari,Narendra Modi,Rahul Gandhi,Priyanka Gandhi,Uddhav Thackeray,Aditya Thackeray. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and ministers of his Cabinet are also expected.

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