05 March,2009 08:59 AM IST | | Agencies
Calling the Mumbai Marathon "just another commercial event'', the BMC has asked the organisers to pay for the civic work carried out during the event, reports the Times of India.
For the first time since the event started six years ago, the civic body has sent a notice to Procam, one of the organisers,u00a0asking them to pay Rs 1.3 crore for the civic work carried out during the event. It involves painting and marking of lanes, touching up roads as well as pavements and other routine infrastructure works.
"We have realised that over the years, the marathon has turned out to be a commercial event rather than a charitable one as it was supposed to be. All the organisations seem to be making a profit out of it. We thought since we also spend a big amount on it, we should also make up for the expenditure,'' Kishore Kshirsagar, deputy municipal commissioner told the paper.
"We have asked Procam to pay Rs 1.3 crore. We have not got any response from them yet.''
Vivek Singh, joint managing director of Procam, said he was shocked to receive the BMC letter a month ago. "We have been organising the event from the very beginning and we have never been asked to pay. We don't understand what happened this year. It seems absurd for us to pay for the city infrastructure work undertaken by the BMC, which it is supposed to do anyway,'' he said.
"We plan to have a meeting with civic officials and find out what is happening,'' he added.
Corporators in the BMC standing committee were also surprised at the demand.
