Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took a swipe at the media for raising hue and cry over the “excessive” use of water for maintenance of cricket pitches that led to shifting of IPl cricket matches from Maharashtra early this year.
Without making any reference to the controversy over the “excessive” use of water for maintenance of cricket pitch and the subsequent Bombay HC order shifting the IPl matches scheduled in drought-hit Maharashtra beyond May 1, the PM touched upon the issue during the course of his speech after launching 14 projects of Pune’s Smart City Plan.
“Sometimes our media friends take things to such a level that one cannot even play cricket in the State. Wherever there is stadium or wherever matches are held, the ground has to be watered and maintained on 365 days of the year irrespective of whether cricket matches are actually played or not,” the Prime Minister said.
“It cannot happen that the moment the cricket matches are shifted out of the stadium, the grounds men would stop sprinkling water on the ground. like I said that the ground has to be watered on all 365 days if matches are played or not.
But, what amazes me as to from where these people (media) bring new philosophy that work,” the Prime Minister said.
Turning to Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who was sitting on the dais, Modi said: “Maharashtra lost revenue because of the shifting of IPl matches out of the state”.