Amid conflicting reports that the CAB has been held responsible by the one-man probe committee for last Thursday’s floodlight blackout at Eden Gardens, the state association has come out with a strong stance — CAB president Jagmohan Dalmiya today proclaimed that Eden can do well without the services of CESC.

It came to light in the backdrop of the floodlight failure during last week’s India-Sri Lanka day-nighter that the CAB had paid big bucks to CESC for a “dedicated” or exclusive power supply line for the one-dayer at Eden — about Rs 1 crore overall. But days after the lights went off in one of the towers, fingers are now being pointed towards the CAB for the debacle.

In reaction to such speculation, Dalmiya today announced that the state association is now on the verge of purchasing generators for running the four floodlight towers, so that it doesn’t have to rely solely on CESC any more.

“The CESC has been serving us since 1993. They gave us good service. But I must say ‘thank you’ now. We are going to set up our own generators for the floodlights. And CESC will be the back-up,” Dalmiya told reporters. He however pointed out that the CAB will embark upon this new daring mission only after the seven-member probe committee submits its report on Thursday’s fiasco.

The CAB president pointed out that the state body has grand plans of buying or hiring four separate power generators for Eden’s four floodlights, which will be maintained entirely by the CAB itself, or its maintenance could be outsourced to some reliable agency. And CESC’s supply in the meantime will remain as a secondary, back-up source during day-night matches in Kolkata.

Dalmiya however clarified that while the CAB is on the verge of literally divorcing with CESC on the power supply arrangement, he has nothing personal against them. “We have no fight against CESC. We don’t want to throw them out. What we are doing (planning to set up our own power system) is in good faith,” the CAB president said.

If the CAB goes ahead with these plans, then the coming edition of the IPL carnival will see the state body running the floodlight towers entirely on its own. Eden will host five day-night matches in the Twenty20 carnival starting March 12 next year.

CAB retracts from initial stance
Interestingly, the CAB has abruptly changed its stance on the floodlight issue. Hours after the lights went off during the match, Dalmiya had told reporters at a press meet that the debacle was caused by faulty power supply from CESC’s end. He had even given details, explaining that CESC supplied 6.02 MW of electricity instead of the minimum required 6.1 MW for a short while that evening, which caused the lights on the High Court end tower to go out.

However, when asked today if he maintains the same stance — that the problem was caused from CESC’s supply end — Dalmiya retracted, refusing to get drawn into a blame game. “Look, let’s not blame anybody for what happened. Let’s wait for the committee to come out with its findings and submit its report. Only then we will know what had happened,” Dalmiya said today, clearly keeping away from blaming CESC for the blackout.

City police chief submits report
The state government has received a report from the Commissioner of Kolkata Police Goutam Mohan Chakraborti over the floodlight fiasco. State Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen said that he had received the report yesterday and forwarded it to Chief Secretary Asok Mohan Chakraborty today, reports PTI.

The Chief Secretary, however, declined to divulge any details of the report, saying that he would place it before Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tomorrow.