Bangalore Turf Club to seek legal recourse against government

BENGALURU: The crisis at the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) deepened on Wednesday as the members gave an overwhelming mandate to take legal recourse against the state government, who haven’t renewed the racing licence since August 31.
In a brief Special General Meeting, 141 (excluding 121 proxies) of the total 338, members voted against the following three resolutions: 1.Increase of membership by 50; 2. Give all 50 slots to government nominees; 3. To fix the membership fee at Rs 5 lakh per member. Instead, they decided to take the issue to the court, in a desperate bid to get racing back on track. The votes were counted by show of hands and only three members voted in favour of the resolution. "The members have given us a mandate to proceed legally, hoping for a interim relief from the court," said BTC chairman Hairmohan Naidu.
Racing came to halt after CM decided not to renew the license until the government’s demand for increase in membership is met.
Uncertainty surrounded the start of the winter racing season— originally scheduled to begin in the first week of November— as legal experts pointed out that court process could take anywhere between three weeks to three months.
However, Naidu hoped that the matter would come up for hearing at the earliest. "We are hoping the matter will be heard and a order will be passed in two weeks. We are requesting an interim order to the government to renew licence, pending final disposal of the writ," said Naidu adding that the committee will meet on Thursday to take further steps.
Going against the government will put BTC in a conflict as four of the 14-member managing committee are government nominees and the chairman is endorsed by the chief minister. The main respondent will be ISN Prasad, who is licensing authority and also a director of BTC by virtue of his position as state finance secretary. UB Venkatesh was the lone government nominees who attend the meeting.
Explaining the rationale behind increasing slots only to accommodate government nominees, Naidu said: "The idea was to restore racing license by giving 50 memberships to the government. Once that was sorted, we planned to increase the membership slots for others."
Meanwhile, a senior member, who voted for the resolution said the club has been let down by its own members. "It was a huge let-down that a meeting called to save the club, which is in danger, concluded in less than hour. The sense of the house was to move court but there was no discussions on how it will affect the club and people depending on racing," he said. "The government will surely oppose in the court, resulting in no racing for another few months," he pointed out.
The three-month long impasse has crippled the club's finances, pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy. The BTC— which generates a net profit of Rs 25 lakh per day during off-course races— has suffered a loss of Rs 17 crore thus far. The state government, which receives SGST of 14 percent from the overall tote collections, has lost around Rs 40 crore in the last two months, it is learnt. Meanwhile, the other racing centres, who host off-course betting for Bengaluru races, too are set to suffer losses.