No Fire Safety Mechanism at Uppal Stadium

Hyderabad: The Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, where International and national cricketers play and celebrities, VIPs and thousands of spectators flock to watch them, has failed to implement fire safety measures, thanks to the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA).

A forensic audit, covering the period from March 2020 to February 2023, conducted on the order of the Supreme Court-appointed Justice L. Nageswara Rao's single-member committee, exposed the absence of safety protocols at the stadium.

It also uncovered irregularities in the selection of a vendor for installing the fire safety system. The audit found that the vendor’s selection process violated multiple norms, ultimately leading to significant financial losses for the HCA, as the vendor did not complete the work.

Following a series of apex council meetings, the HCA selected a vendor in a manner detrimental to its interests, it was stated. The contract was awarded to the vendor at a 248 per cent mark-up, and 70 per cent of the bill, amounting to Rs 1.08 crore, was paid as advance. Despite this, the vendor failed to execute the work, resulting in a huge loss for the HCA.

Former Indian cricket team captain Mohammad Azharuddin, who served as the president of the HCA during this period, acknowledged in an apex council meeting that "the fire-fighting system at the stadium was a major issue that needed to be addressed urgently, as it is a statutory requirement."

He said that the HCA frequently encountered problems with the fire department authorities in obtaining permissions during matches, and installing the fire-fighting equipment should be a top priority. The then-secretary of HCA, Vijayanand, also admitted the lack of fire-fighting systems, which constituted a clear violation of the Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department Act and Rules.

The audit found a number of anomalies in HCA’s transaction with Firewin Safety Engineers. It termed the “transaction as not genuine, detrimental to the interest of the association. The huge invoicing had caused immense loss to HCA.”

It clearly mentioned that the huge outflow of funds from the HCA was carried out beyond what should have been for these items. “Even after three years, the letter and spirit of the minutes of meeting has not been implemented,” the report found.

“Non-compliance of statutory requirements of the fire department authorities are still persisting even after a period of 3 years, after the initial discussions being held in 3rd Apex Council meeting held on December 28, 2019,”, the audit said.

The audit report also listed out that the tenders were issued with a short notice of three days raising suspicion that the same was issued with malicious intention to favour a particular vendor.

When the auditors checked the background of the bidders with the ‘Form IV – Auto Renewal of Registration Certificate’ of the labour department, they found that the tenders were submitted through related parties to ensure that the tender submitted was competitive and to avoid a single tender contract.

The authorisation and approval matrix and delegation of powers are found to be inconsistent. Hence there is every possibility of misuse of position during the issue of work order and payments.

Former HCA Secretary Shesu Narayan expressed shock over the non-action of police officials against the accused even after five criminal cases were filed against the accused.