CHENNAI: The associations under BCCI and the court-appointed committee of administrators (CoA) continue to look in opposite directions. Just 16 of the 30 full members of the board have responded to the CoA’s mail asking for a list of their voting and non-voting members. Those who have not include prominent units like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi, Saurashtra and Maharashtra.
The CoA will report the defaulters to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, when the special bench is scheduled to resume hearing in the BCCI case. The mail asking the units to furnish a list of members and put it up on their respective websites was sent on August 2. They had been asked to reply by August 8. According to a list released by CoA on Tuesday, there are just 16 full BCCI members among 21 respondents.
Sources told Express that the list of members was sought to start the process of holding elections in states where new office-bearers have to be elected following the court order on Lodha guidelines. “The electoral process has to start and the list of voters is needed to streamline things other than ensure transparency. With many associations not providing it, the matter will most likely be reported to the court,” said someone monitoring proceedings.
Including associate/affiliate members Bihar, Manipur, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal and excluding the suspended Rajasthan, the mail was sent to 36 associations. The CoA has put up a list showing that 15 have not responded. Barring Arunachal, all are full members.
Some have responded to the CoA’s mail without submitting list of members. For example, Baroda has said that the process of compiling the list of voting members is taking time because the association is “transferring all members’ data into a bio-metric card” for the sake of a foolproof voting system. Ten of the 21 respondents have not mentioned names of their websites.
“What is the hurry in sending the list and why does the CoA want it? Their mail doesn’t say why this list has to be submitted. Anyway, all documents are in place and the list can be sent anytime. We will send it. But again, there is no hurry. Neither are we aware of any deadline,” said the secretary of an association which has not responded.
“As far as I know, the Lodha commission had also asked for such a list, which was provided back then. If needed, the CoA can refer to that. But this is a trivial matter, compared to the hearing. Let’s wait till then,” said the president of another association.
Hearing today
The SC will hear on Wednesday the CoA’s urge to sack BCCI office-bearers and let the CoA and BCCI paid staff to run the board until elections. Rajya Sabha MP Subrmanian Swamy’s petition asking for e-tendering of IPL media rights will also be heard.
atreyo@newindianexpress.com