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SC permits Kotla to host sixth one day

     New Delhi: After the Centre and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) gave clean chit to Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium, calling it "absolute safe", the Supreme Court today gave a green signal to the sixth and last one day Cricket match scheduled to be played between India and Pakistan on April 17. Putting aside its earlier contentions with the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) over the safety issue, MCD stressed before the court that the stadium was safe to host the match. The stadium, which DDCA President Arun Jaitely once said would be having five star facilities, will accommodate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf along with 30,000 spectators during the match. Senior advocate Ashwini Kumar, while appearing for MCD, said that expert engineers had examined all the minutest aspects of safety. He told that an undertaking had been given to the Court according to which the civic body would be responsible to the Court and to the country for the safety of the stadium. After getting satisfied with the safety measures taken by DDCA and tests done by MCD, a Bench comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari ruled out an application filed by an NGO "Society for Safe Structures", in which it had appealed to put stay on the match, citing the safety of the spectators as a reason. The Court made it clear right at the beginning that it would not go into the legality of the permissions granted to the stadium but would examine the safety aspect. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Shiela Dixit has taken a visit at Kotla ground and inspected the arrangement of security measures there.

Security beefed up in Ahmedabad for Indo-Pak ODI (Go To Top)

      Ahmedabad: Security has been beefed up in the city ahead of the fourth one-day international (ODI) between India and Pakistan which is scheduled to be held on Tuesday. PK Jha, the Inspector General of police told reporters that elaborate security arrangements have been made to avoid any kind of violence. "We have deployed 8 Superintendent of Police, 46 Deputy Superintendent of Police, 131 Police inspectors and about 1000 policemen. We have also arranged for trained commandos to handle any unwanted situation. Along with this we have kept a bomb disposable squad and rapid action force has also been deployed. We are warning in advance that if anybody tries to break rules and create any violence, that person would be arrested immediately. We are not ready to take any risk as far the security is concerned," said Jha. Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) would also deploy security personnel in and around the stadium while Yellow Guards from Mumbai would ensure proper ticket checking. Spectators would not be allowed to carry water bottles, snacks, cameras or placards inside the stadium. GCA will also be providing an insurance cover of 2 crore rupees to the Pakistan team. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had initially refused to play a five-day Test match in Ahmedabad citing security reasons but later agreed to take part in a one-dayer after the Indian cricket board and local officials guaranteed them high-level security.

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