A first in Indian Cricket: DDCA comes under Right To Information (RTI) Act

Mired in corruption related controversies for decades, the Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) today made a giant stride towards transparency by becoming the first BCCI affiliated unit to come under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.

The five member RTI cell of DDCA will be headed by Public Information Officer (PIO) Pradeep Kumar Banerjee. There will be two appellate authorities -- the CEO, who is expected to be appointed after the elections and president of the executive committee.

An Ethics Officer and an Ombudsman will also be a part of the committee.

A fee of Rs 10 will be charged per RTI appeal. A maximum of two appeals in a particular case will be entertained -- pdf forms of which have already been uploaded by the DDCA along with the separate application form.

While the Lodha Committee recommendations wanted BCCI under RTI act, the game's governing body has vehemently resisted the move with their contention being that they don't take any government grant and don't want to be labelled as National Sports Federation (NSF).

However DDCA, which is going into the elections tomorrow, has set the benchmark under High Court appointed administrator Justice (Retd) Vikramajit Sen.

It is learnt that since DDCA is a company, it was necessary to bring it under RTI.

"Recently, the Law Commission of India has recommended that BCCI should be subject to the Right to Information Act since all other National and State sports federations are amenable to the Right to Information Act. In keeping with this recommendation of the Law Commission of India and various judicial dicta, this State Association should be transparent and accessible to the public," a DDCA press release stated.

"The DDCA is a company and is bound by the provisions of the Companies Act and as such has to make accessible various important documents such as the Minutes book of the Company, Balance sheets etc. The Lodha reforms and judgements of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and High Court of Delhi have sought to make cricket bodies like the DDCA accountable and RTI is step towards that objective," the release further stated.

Former India cricketer and DDCA presidential candidate Madan Lal welcomed the move.

"Obviously, there should be a lot of transparency with regards to financial documents. If I win the elections, it will be easier for me to answer people's queries. RTI is a step in the right direction and would help DDCA in gaining more credibility in terms of transparency," Lal told PTI today.