“We had more than Rs 100 crore lying with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) when the scam came to light but later is adamant to release the money,” he said.
Eleven years after taking possession of 500 kanals of land for the construction of proposed International Cricket stadium in Bajalta area of Jammu, the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) on Monday said that cricket body has no money to build one.
“Our account has been frozen since unearthing of multi-crore scam in 2012, we are running our day- to- day affairs with great difficulty, we don’t have money even for players, so it is unimaginable to start construction of stadium at this point,” Chairman JKCA, Mehboob Iqbal told.
“We had more than Rs 100 crore lying with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) when the scam came to light but later is adamant to release the money,” he said.
“We are not hiding anything, after 2012 fund scam, cricket in Jammu and Kashmir has suffer much,” he said, adding, “The scam dented our image, BCCI decided not to release any funds meant to spend for conducting of domestic activities or taking up development projects until culprits of the scam are not punished,” he said.
He said that the land, which has been allotted for the stadium has been found as flood prone and it is difficult to raise construction on that site.
“Don’t want to comment on working of successors but the land which they (then JKCA team) finalized was faulty and flood prone, which invites 60-70 crore more investment for construction of protection bunds in addition to project cost,” the chairman JKCA said, adding, “It’s our irony to start work but we don’t have money to take up the process of land identification”.
Pertinently, the foundation stone for the international stadium was to be laid on March 18, 2012.
Almost all arrangements were in place for the ceremony, but in the meantime multi-crore scam hit headlines after reports surfaced that said crores of rupees intended for promotion of the sport in the state was diverted to different accounts by JKCA office bearers with mala fide intention. Due to confusion and chaos within the state cricket body, work on the stadium failed to take off, which had given rise to a blame game.