BJP MP Kirti Azad trains guns at Jaitley; announces to Expose cricket’s biggest scam again
Like many other Cricket associations of the country, Delhi Cricket Association is neck deep corruption. From many years former Cricketer and BJP MP Kirti Azad has been raising his voice against the rampant mismanagement and corruption in the Association, but it has always felt on deaf ears.
Former Test Cricketer and BJP MP Kirti Azad who led a campaign to expose ‘electoral and financial frauds’ in the DDCA has claimed of massive corruption ongoing within the body headed by his party member and current Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for over a decade.
This time again Kirti Azad has announced to expose the controversial scam again with ‘News Leak Centre’
' It was today last year @BishanBedi & I exposed #DDCAFraud with #Proof, #Corruption under @arunjaitley's nose and tenure. #DoobMaro #Shame
— Kirti Azad (@KirtiAzadMP) December 19, 2016
However, the DDCA claimed of not falling under the R.T.I and therefore they had no compulsion of presenting any information regarding its functioning. Ironically, Arun Jaitley was the President of DDCA for 13 years till December 2013 and continues to be its Chief patron.
The CIC on the other hand, collectively held that the DDCA which otherwise is an autonomous body fulfilling the conditions for being declared a ‘public authority’ under RTI as it had been using the land of the government for the commercial reasons.
The CIC ruling questioned the modesty of permitting a commercial group to pay institutional rates as lease rent.
As mentioned in a media report, the persistence from Azad also led to an inquiry by the Serious Fraud Investigation Organization (SFIO) in the corporate affairs ministry, which lists 23 instances of misuse of funds, non-payment of taxes, not following the tendering route, appointment of tainted auditors and irregularities concerning management of membership, ticketing and a lot more.
The copy of the SFIO report exhibits that there were no efforts made to actually do up the irregularities.
Unlike other state cricket bodies, DDCA is a private limited company registered under Section 25 of the 1956 Companies Act limited by guarantee and does not have share capital. With 4, 600 members in total, 300 of them are corporate members.
In order to keep vigil, the central government appoints 3 nominees to the DDCA and since 2011; it included Delhi Congressman Arvinder Singh Lovely, former Union minister Rajiv Shukla and Congress MP Navin Jindal. After the change of government in 2014, the new members then included BJP MP Pravesh Varma, and former BJP MLAs R.P. Singh and Sunil Yadav. The truth however remains that no government nominee has ever complaint against any misconduct.
Commenting on the same, former cricketer and DDCA member Bishen Singh Bedi said, “It’s a cozy club; political affiliations don’t matter.”
Below are some points related to the state of Ferozshah Kotla stadium that makes the ‘management’ or ‘mismanagement’ even clearer.
• Even though the lease of the ground expired in 2002, the stadium is still in the control of DDCA and is effectively making it an illegal dweller for past 13 years. However, owners Delhi Development Authority have chosen to be ignorant towards the issue.
• The DDCA has spent around Rs. 500 crore on the building and reformation in Kotla, on an average Rs. 100 crore per year, in spite of having no legal rights.
• According to an inspection report in 2013, led by the technical section of the Union ministry of Urban development, unlawful construction was reported at 13 places in Kotla.
• An audit report of December 2014 display several episodes of money being paid for construction and maintenance works in cash, with no safeguards like inviting quotations. It displayed that cash payments worth crores were paid with no approval of the executive committee.
• Three companies including Vidhan Infras¬tructure Private Ltd, Sriram Tradecom Private Ltd and Maple Infra-reality Private Ltd were paid an amount of Rs 1.55 crore supposedly as an advance execution of civil works.
• Between the span of 2008 to 2011, the DDCA made cash payments in crores for expenses related to hosting cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) matches, shown in the name of ‘IPL match expenses’. The investigation by SFIO exposed that these expenses were to be met by one of the big sponsors of IPL, GMR that paid DDCA Rs. 10 lakh a match. Apart from this, the DDCA received Rs. 26 crore from the BCCI between 2008 to 2011 for hosting IPL matches.
• According to the SFIO report, the DDCA, for the promotion of cricket in Delhi gets approximately Rs. 30 crore every year and this year, it received Rs. 36 crore.
• The DDCA runs 110 cricket clubs that organize cricket tournaments, provide coaching, search and sharpen talent. But at the same time, the family of each student has to actually pay approximately Rs. 2-3 lakh annually for coaching of their child and their participation in the matches held by clubs under the DDCA.
BJP MLA Kirti Azad wrote to Arun Jaitley about his involvement in corruption at DDCA, which no media house has ever reported.
The letter nobody’s talking about: When BJP MLA Kirti Azad wrote to Arun Jaitley about corruption in DDCA
Along with Kirti Azad, Bishen Singh Bedi too has written almost 200 letters to the Finance Minister informing him about the out of control corruption and sought thorough investigation. No inquiry has ever happened of their account books, infact the entire
BCCI is unaccountable.
We expect a thorough and sincere investigation about the allegations , and punish whoever is found guilty.