Even as SAD leaders are gearing up to celebrate chief minister Parkash Singh Badal's birthday on December 8 with the inauguration of the Rajpura thermal power plant, another promise made by the CM for Bathinda six years ago remains to be fulfilled.
The work on ambitious plan to construct an international cricket stadium here, a foundation stone for which was laid six years back on December 8, 20007, to mark Chief Minister's birthday is yet to start.
The Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and the Punjab Cricket Association had promised a cricket stadium with facilities to host international cricket matches at the place.
However, the authorities of the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) claim to have spent Rs 12 lakh for preparing a pitch and some other works in the ground. The stadium is to be constructed on about 25 acres of land with an estimated expenditure of about Rs 100 crore.
There also seems to be a confusion among officials as to which will be the authority to execute the project.
The Managing Director of the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board that was entrusted the work of constructing the stadium, Anurag Agarwal, declined to comment and said only sports department officials can say something on this. The Director Sports, Shivdular Singh, despite repeated attempts could not be contacted.
{{/usCountry}}The Managing Director of the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board that was entrusted the work of constructing the stadium, Anurag Agarwal, declined to comment and said only sports department officials can say something on this. The Director Sports, Shivdular Singh, despite repeated attempts could not be contacted.
{{/usCountry}}On the other hand, Chief Administrator of the BDA Varinder Kumar Sharma said that the BDA was sanctioned an amount of R12 lakh only about a month ago. "From the funds sanctioned we have made an approach road to the site, prepared a pitch and planted special grass on the outfield few ago," he said. He, however, feigned ignorance about initiating the work on stadium.