Civic activists on Tuesday accused the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) of illegally sponsoring the Asian Grand Prix athletics competition, which took place in the city in June this year. Civic activists Sandeep Khardekar and Vijay Kumbhar asked how the civic administration could sponsor the event when it had accepted that as per the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act, 1949, it is illegal for the PMC to sponsor the events.  Khardekar said he had found out by using the Right To Information Act that the PMC handed over Rs45 lakh to the event organisers. The city Congress city unit president, Abhay Chhajed, had taken the amount from the PMC. Chhajed claimed there was nothing illegal in the PMC sponsoring the event. “Budgetary provision was made for the event and even the opposition had given approval to it,” he said.  Khardekar said that on earlier occasions, PMC officers had admitted that sponsoring such events is illegal. “Most of the expenditure, details of which have been submitted by the organisers to the PMC, has been incurred on hotels and air travel,” he alleged.  Interestingly, the PMC gave Rs10 lakh to the same organisation in 2007. But they did not submit the bills to the PMC.

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