JOIN USWhy waste water on IPL during drought, asks HC
With drought looming large over Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday rapped the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and said ideally the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches should be shifted out to states where there is water in abundance.
“How can you waste water like this...Are people more important or your IPL matches?...How can you be so careless? Who wastes water like this? This is criminal wastage. You know what the condition is in Maharashtra (about severe water shortage in cities and drought in several parts of Marathwada region).....Ideally, you should shift the IPL matches to some other state where water is in abundance,” a division bench headed by Justice V M Kanade, said in its oral observations.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by Loksatta Movement, a Mumbai-based NGO, which wanted the IPL matches, scheduled to be held in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, relocated to cities outside Maharashtra following a severe drought.
IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla on Tuesday had ruled out shifting the matches out of Maharashtra. However, he had said that the organisers were ready to help the people in distress.
A total of 19 matches will be played in the Maharashtra in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur during ninth season of the IPL T20 tournament. “Only if water supply to the BCCI is cut, you will understand,” Justice Kanade observed.
The bench also asked acting Advocate General Rohit Deo to appear for the Maharashtra government on Thursday.