Cash-strapped govt to allow pvt events at stadiums

With the cash-strapped government deciding to open sports stadium doors to private functions, celebrities can now perform in front of gigantic audiences in central locations of our cities.

Updated on: Aug 12, 2012, 01:53:02 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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With the cash-strapped government deciding to open sports stadium doors to private functions, celebrities can now perform in front of gigantic audiences in central locations of our cities.

The sports ministry wants to hand over the responsibility of maintaining stadiums to private players, in return for the right to earn revenue through renting space. “We will allow renting out stadiums for all kinds of events, with the exception of political rallies, marriages and religious congregations,” said a senior sports ministry functionary.

There are 109 stadiums under the Sports Authority of India, including the biggest – the Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium in Delhi – and others with various state governments. The JLN Stadium would be the first to be handed over to a private player, government officials said.

The new public-private-partnership policy would apply to all governments that do not have the resources to maintain the stadiums. According to the sports ministry, infrastructure worth Rs 10,0000 crore – developed for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and National Games in Ranchi – is at risk of going waste due to lack of maintenance.

On an average, the ministry received Rs 1,100 crore in the last two budgets, with a very small amount being allocated for maintenance of sports infrastructure. “There isn’t enough money because the ministry budget has been cut after the Commonwealth Games,” a senior official said, asking the ministry to seek help from the private sector.

The Planning Commission has been asked to frame a comprehensive model concession agreement for handing over stadiums to private players. The government would, however, reserve the primary right of usage. This means that while the stadiums would be reserved for sporting activities on specified days, private events such as international conferences, concerts and fairs would be held on others.

“The bidding process for the stadiums will be held in an open and transparent manner,” the functionary said, adding that the winner would have to deposit a specific amount with the government as security.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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