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Dikshit and Jaitley after the meeting. (PTI)
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New Delhi, April 1: The Kotla one-dayer that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has been invited to watch will be held as scheduled.
Arun Jaitley, a BJP leader and president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association, said after a breakfast meeting with Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit today that it had been ?unanimously? agreed to go ahead with the April 17 game at the Ferozeshah Kotla.
Yesterday, Jaitley had cast a shadow on the one-dayer saying it would be difficult to meet the conditions imposed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and security agencies to get mandatory clearance for the match.
Dikshit herself invited Jaitley for this morning?s meeting, that was also attended by a host of security and civic officials. She said all co-ordination problems with the Delhi cricket body would be sorted out and the match held as scheduled.
She is understood to have given Jaitley a buzz last night soon after national security adviser M.K. Narayanan called her up from Mauritius ? on instructions from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ?asking her to intervene in the matter.
Jaitley briefed the Delhi cricket body executive this afternoon on his discussions with the chief minister, after which it was ?unanimously? agreed to go ahead with the match.
The BJP leader told reporters after the meeting that the cricket body would stage the match as various government bodies had assured him full support.
Jaitley had yesterday said the municipal corporation and security agencies were putting hurdles in the way of the Kotla match. But the Union home ministry had clarified last night itself that security would not be a hurdle.
The municipal body today disputed Jaitley?s claim.
The corporation?s standing committee chairman, Mukesh Goel, alleged that Jaitley was merely seeking to politicise the issue. The Delhi cricket body had not even formally applied for a no-objection certificate, he said. Goel belongs to the Congress. ?Jaitley is unnecessarily politicising the issue because we belong to different political groups,? Goel said.
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