da betway： A long-standing dispute between the Punjab Sports Council (PSC) and PunjabCricket Association (PCA) has returned to the spotlight after a localcourt issued a notice on behalf of the PSC, asking the PCA to return theland on which their stadium is built
da bwin： Siddhartha Vaidyanathan at Mohali01-Nov-2006
The Punjab Cricket Association could lose its foothold on the Mohali Stadium © Getty Images
A long-standing dispute between the Punjab Sports Council (PSC) and PunjabCricket Association (PCA) has returned to the spotlight after a localcourt issued a notice on behalf of the PSC, asking the PCA to return theland on which their stadium is built.The PCA Stadium in Mohali was built in 1992 on land leased from the PSC.Inderjit Singh Bindra, the president of the PCA, was then also the sports secretary inthe state government and he is supposed to have taken the lease on anominal annual rent (which some sources say was as meager as Rs 100). Nowthe PSC has demanded Rs 150 crore (US$ 33,366,000 approx), which theybelieve the PCA has earned since 1992, along with an additional Rs 50crore for damages.Pargat Singh, former Indian hockey captain and currently director ofsports at Punjab, filed a petition yesterday at Kharar SDM’s court. Heconfirmed that the PSC had asked the PCA to hand over the land to theSports Council, which, he believed, was the legal owner. Pargat also addedthat the PSC had been forced into this move because the PCA had requestedfor more time in response to the legal notice sent in the second week ofJuly. “Three months is a long time and since there was not furthermovement, we decided to approach the courts.”As the situation stands, the PCA has been asked to file a reply byNovember 15. Bindra insisted he hadn’t seen the notice yet. A few closeobservers point to the political dimension to the whole matter, with theruling party trying to get a foothold into cricketing matters in the stateahead of the assembly elections scheduled for February next year.
