OCA poll on August 17

Orissa Cricket Association elections will be conducted on August 17. This was decided in the council meeting of the state body at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack today. According to OCA secretary Asirbad Behera, the election process will start with filing of nominations on August 6. Scrutiny of nominations will be done next day. August 9 has been set as the date for withdrawal of nominations.But the list of valid voters could not be finalised due to some technical errors. ````The final list will be released within a couple of days,```` Behera clarified. Besides finalising the dates for the poll, the council meeting passed the audit report for the year 2007-08 as well as a surpuls budget of Rs 28.54 lakh for the year 2008-09. The budget includes Rs 43,10,99,100 as total income and Rs 42,82,44,307 as total expenditure. The meeting also approved a proposal to double the amount of annual grants for affiliated units with effect from 2008-09. Accordingly, the 15 district athletic associations will get Rs 1.60 lakh each in place of Rs 80,000. Similarly, enhanced grants for other affiliated units will include Rs 1.2 lakh each for the 18 district cricket association, 16 Class-I clubs and five Class-I colleges: Rs 1 lakh each for 10 Class-I schools and Rs 80,000 each to five Class-II clubs. A Rs 60 crore worth mega project for renovation of the Barabati Stadium received unanimous approval in the meeting. Titled as ``Barabati Shining`` the project includes construction of pavilions, VIP box rooms, indoor cricket hall, swimming pool and extention of gallery No 1 and 2, OCA office, players`` dressing room and corporate box. The council meeting too passed the State Cricket Academy project unanimously. According to the secretary``s report, 50 per cent work of the Rs 3 crore-worth academy project has been completed. Set up on the land of Orissa Olympic Association, near Barabati Stadium, the academy is expected to be functional by September this year.