S.P. PANDEY,Chandigarh March 24 : "The way BCCI has been forced to seek alternate venues for IPL matches is a telling comment on the failure of the Government on the security front." This anguish was expressed by BJP spokesperson and In-charge of Media cell of the party Kehar Singh Kondel, Party Spokesmen Raghuvir Lal Arora and Davesh Moudgil in joint statement here today.
They put the Congress party in the dock by reminding that while all the BJP-NDA ruled states had offered full protection for IPL matches in their territories Congress ruled states had refused to own this responsibility. As they refused to provide security for the IPL matches the BCCI was forced to look for venues like England and South Africa.
BJP spokespersons said that as a result crores of rupees worth of business has been lost to Indian states and this money will now go to foreign countries. Indian sports lovers will also be denied the opportunity to enjoy watching the thrilling IPL matches live. As two IPL matches were allocated to Chandigarh and will not be played here the loss of revenue and pleasure of watching the matches live will affect residents of Chandigarh and surrounding areas directly.
Repeating the BJP promise to have a separate sports policy for Chandigarh UT, these leaders said this will obviate the need for Chandigarh sportsmen to sport colours of teams of other states/UTs. This step needs to be taken urgently as this is resulting in loss of opportunity to project the identity of Chandigarh.