Asking Shimla residents to remain vigilant against any move to hand over the Annandale ground to the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA),the CPM on Sunday said some big land sharks were eyeing the prime area in the garb of a cricket stadium. Tikender Singh Panwar,CPM state secretariat member,said during the recent agitation led by a forum of Shimla citizens in Annandale,certain facts came to light about the campaign to take over the ground. There is a close connection between the HPCA and the BJP leaders who are working in connivance to take over the Annandale ground under the guise of converting it into a stadium, he said. The signature campaign launched by the HPCA to take over this sprawling ground and convert it into a BCCI stadium smacks of vested interest and is an easy way to allow builders to take over one of the most majestic places in Shimla and convert it into a concrete jungle. The CPM asked for a vigilance inquiry to see how a dense forest at the edge of the ground had been converted into a grassland.
