BJP's oath-taking function will spoil Wankhede stadium: MCA official

Why should an international cricket stadium be used for a political event when there are other grounds available This is the question Nadeem Memon maidan secretary of Mumbai Cricket Association and former curator of Wankhede Stadium is posing to the BJP after learning that the ground will be the venue for the oathtaking ceremony of the new BJPled governmentAlso read Where will the BJP CM take oathMCA CEO C S Naik left takes a round of the stadium with city BJP chief Ashish Shelar and other BJP leaders yesterday PicsPradeep DhivarThe ceremony is tentatively slated for October 31 Friday when the new chief minister of the state along with his cabinet shall be sworn in at the stadium Memon contends that organising the function in the ground will undo years of toil and hard work that were put in to bring the stadium up to international standardsNadeem Memon seen in a file picture when he was the curator of Wankhede stadiumPotential damageWankhedersquos turf has been laid upon sand and keeping chairs sofas and other seating arrangements on it will lead to small craters being formed on the ground Repairing them will take at least 20 days that too on a war footing Memon explainedBJPrsquos city leaders discussing the details of the swearingin ceremony at Wankhede stadiumHe also added that due to the function important practice matches for the Ranji Trophy and Under19 have to be shifted to the MCA ground in BKC which is already crowded with Under16 Under14 and womenrsquos teamsrsquo matches Moreover Memon claimed an annual MCA awards ceremony scheduled for November 1 had to also be postponedKrishna Prakash additional commissioner of policeldquoMy only issue is why is an international ground being used for a swearingin ceremony when other options are available They can do it at MMRDA ground in BandraKurla Complex BKCParty workers will put all kinds of chairs and sofas What if the ground is damaged Itrsquos very difficult to make an internationallevel ground and Wankhede has never been used for political purposes before Why now Why are politicians hellbent on organising it hererdquo Memon questionedHe recalled that in the year 2007 post Indiarsquos victory in the Twenty20 World Cup there had been objections to Sharad Pawar using the ground for the celebration ceremony Memon claimed that they had received assurances saying the pitches would be cordoned offYet people ran all over the pitches and the ground Memon claims politicians are dictating the terms now The BJPrsquos ceremony is set to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi BJP party chief Amit Shah and other top brass of the partyldquoI will request the Governor not to hold the function here and instead ask him to take it somewhere else Wankhede has a capacity of only 35000 while Chowpatty can accommodate nearly 1 lakh Why not go there If Modi is going to do this then what else do I sayrdquo Memon wonderedSecurity measuresB K Upadhyay joint commissioner of police traffic said ldquoWe have made parking arrangements near Vidhan Bhavan Grant Medical College M K Road and M G Road Further traffic restrictions would be imposed due to VIP movement from the airport to Marine Linesrdquo