Venue
woes for Anna Hazare and his team do not seem to be ending as they have
now been denied permission for using the sports ground adjoining the
Azad Maidan in Mumbai.
The sporting body Sports and Youth Services, which controls some sports grounds in Mumbai said school cricket tournaments are planned between 26 and 30 December on two pitches at the Azad Maidan. |
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The
part of Azad Maidan that Team Anna can use can only accommodate 3000 to
4000 people. Therefore, Team Anna was in talks with the sports
associations controlling other parts of Azad Maidan to accommodate the
crowd.
The sporting body which controls some sports grounds in Mumbai said school cricket tournaments are planned.
Team
Anna has been unable to get Mumbai's MMRDA grounds, which can
accommodate a crowd of up to one lakh due to the steep rent. With over
Rs 19 lakh to be paid for five days at MMRDA grounds, and no government
concessions in sight, Team Anna has been inclined to use Azad Maidan.
However,
a writ petition has also been filed by India Against Corruption(IAC)
against MMRDA and the Maharashtra government for not giving the MMRDA
protest site for the agitation beginning on 27 December.
Meanwhile,
Hazare has threatened to go to jail if he and his supporters do not get
a place for agitation. 'Even in Delhi, they put me in jail first and
then gave us a place. The same will happen here, we will at least get a
place in jail,' Hazare said.
Meanwhile, slamming
the new Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare said the government should involve
people in lawmaking and invoked Rajiv Gandhi's name to tell the
Congress-led dispensation that he had written to all village heads
before coming out with the Panchayati Raj Bill. Hazare questioned as to
why the government was drafting the bill alone.
'Why
is it so? Why does it not take the advise of the people? People are
the masters and they have sent MPs to serve them. So they have to listen
to people. Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi understood this.
'He
wrote to sarpanches in all the 5.5 lakh villages in the country on the
73rd and 74th amendment. You cannot do it on your whims and fancies.
Then what is the difference between autocracy and democracy?' he told
reporters here.
Hazare said the new Lokpal Bill
was very weak and a wrong one which will not help in eradicating
corruption. Asked whether he read the bill last night, Hazare said,
leave it and went to say that the government should involve people in
the process of drafting law.
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