Hard landing

The Karnataka government was so carried away by India’s victory in the recently-concluded ICC World Cup that it announced allotments of free Bangalore Development Authority plots to members of the winning team. Now, the state government finds itself in knots because the rules stipulate that a person needs to be a resident of the city for about a decade before being eligible for a site. At the outset, the laws will have to be amended, say experts. What about the team coach? He cannot even own property in India! Not surprisingly, the powers-that-be are trying to figure out how it can wriggle out of the mess. Perhaps they can fall back on the time-honoured tradition. Some sportsmen and women who were promised plots on earlier occasions have been waiting for their land for over a decade or so.