No end to infighting in RCA: Two office bearers train guns on Joshi
RCA secretary, treasurer say they are being forced to clear bills not approved by executive
The tussle between different factions in the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) once again came to fore Thursday when two office bearers alleged that they were being forced to clear bills pertaining to excess expenditure of Rs 2 crore.
General secretary Rajendra Singh Nandu and treasurer Pinkesh Porwal Jain have alleged that RCA president CP Joshi was forcing them to sign on the bills. The excess expenditure incurred on repair works at SMS Stadium was not cleared by the executive committee, they alleged.
Cricket made its comeback in Jaipur after four years when Rajasthan Royals took on Delhi Daredevils in an IPL match Wednesday.
The duo alleged that Joshi was trying to create an impression that the secretary and the treasure were sitting over the bills submitted by the contractor. “The tender for the repair work was finalised at Rs 2.59 crore, while the bill submitted for clearance is well over Rs 4 crore,” Nandu said.
Nandu alleged that before undertaking repair works exceeding the tender bid, the contractors had not sought executive committee’s approval. “No verification of the work done has been undertaken by any third party agency. The contractor has already been paid Rs 1.7 crore,” Nandu said.
Nandu said if the matches were being organised at SMS Stadium, then the credit must go to the Rajasthan High Court and the state government. “Joshi is trying to claim credit despite the fact that he made no efforts in this regard. The repair work at SMS Stadium was carried out as per a high court directive. Even the salaries of the RCA staff were released as per the HC order,” he said.
He said that as per the rule the signatories for operating the bank account are secretary/president (either of the two) and the treasurer. At the insistence of Joshi, Nandu said, they (secretary and treasurer) agreed to include even joint secretary Mahendra Sharma as signatory for jointly operating the account and to maintain transparency. “Thereafter Joshi appointed his personal secretary PS Bhawani Samota as a contact person between RCA, Rajasthan Royals, and the BCCI despite the fact that several competent RCA officials were available,” he alleged.
The tender for the repair work was granted to M/s Creative Project Pvt Ltd. The tender was submitted for Rs 2.59 crore. The actual repair work at site was carried out by one Ramakant Pareek who is considered close to Joshi and Samota.
Nandu said that Pareek submitted Rs 4 crore in the name of M/s Creative Project Pvt Ltd whereas no verification has been made. “Because of such undue pressure created by Joshi to clear the bills of Pareek, two members of advisory committee — Sumendra Tiwari and Vinod Saharan — resigned,” Nandu said, adding that he was “ready to sign over the bills but first Joshi must put his signature”.
“In case of excess expenditure, Joshi should have informed us. If all papers are in order, then I am ready to sign,” said Pinkesh Jain.
Contacted, advisory committee member Vivek Vyas claimed that the excess expenditure had been approved by the executive committee. “Any of the two officials (secretary and treasurer) can sign on the bills. As president, Joshi never signs any bills,” Vyas said.
Earlier, on Wednesday, Nandu had alleged that the “RCA officials who worked day in and day out to realise this dream of SMS Stadium hosting cricket again after a gap of four years” were being meted out a step-motherly treatment.
Till late afternoon, neither Nandu nor other senior officials had received passes for the Rajasthan Royal’s first home match later in the evening.
Nandu had blamed Joshi for the situation. “He might be distributing passes to his favourites,” he said.
“All Ranji players, workers who cooperated with us significantly and many other prominent people will be deprived of watching matches which are coming to the city after four years. There should have been a valid process of distribution of invitation passes.
“Had 15 per cent passes allotted to us, we could have distributed 50 per cent each within ourselves. However, there was no such distribution and hence all of us are sitting idle with no invitation passes in our hands,” Nandu alleged.
The officials were finally handed over the passes just before the match was to start.
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