The excitement of the T20 series between India and Australia has now reached the fourth match. There was heavy rain of runs in the first three matches of the series and now the same is expected in the fourth match also. The fourth match of the series will be played at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh. However, even before the match starts, the stadium is in the news for a different reason. The electricity of this stadium has been cut for the last 5 years and despite this, this T20 match will be played on this ground, for which Chhattisgarh Cricket Association has spent separately.
Before the fourth T20 match to be held on Friday, December 1, Raipur Stadium was in the news due to electricity issue. There is an outstanding electricity bill of more than Rs 3 crore on this stadium for the last several years, which has not been paid even till date. Due to this, the connection of this stadium has been disconnected for the last 5 years. This condition of an international cricket stadium is really shocking and the reason for this is the ongoing tussle between government departments.
Bill not paid for last 5 years
According to the report of Times of India, this stadium comes under the Sports Department of Chhattisgarh Government. The maintenance of the stadium has been the responsibility of PWD. Chhattisgarh Cricket Association has been paying a fee of Rs 3 lakh per day to the Sports Department for any event. In such a situation, it has been the responsibility of the sports department to pay all the bills including electricity in this stadium, but it has not paid the bills for the last 5 years.
PWD has also been avoiding this work and this has affected the electricity supply. It has been told in the report that Chhattisgarh Cricket Association has been demanding the rights of this stadium from the Sports Department for a long time, so that the responsibility of managing and running it remains with them, but both the departments have not even approved it. Its result is visible here.
The match is being organized on this basis
Now the question is how can the match be held without electricity? Chhattisgarh Association has also prepared this option. At the beginning of this year itself, an ODI match was played between India and New Zealand and the preparations that were made for that are the same for this match also. Although a temporary connection has been found for the stadium, the match cannot be conducted solely on its basis. In such a situation, the association has had to spend from its own coffers.
Many generator sets have been taken to complete the match, for which the association has spent about Rs 1.5 crore. It has been told in the report that only with the help of these gen-sets, all the floodlights of the stadium will be lit and the match will be completed. The association does not want to leave the floodlights dependent on temporary connections as there would be a risk of power cut at any time between matches.
