MMRDA clueless about CM’s rent stand for Coldplay

After opposition parties made some noise about the special treatment being meted out to the organisers of British rock band Coldplay, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that he will not waive off any rent for Global Citizen for using the Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) grounds at Bandra Kurla Complex on November 19.

However, MMRDA officials claim that they have not received any formal communication from the CM regarding not waiving off the rent.

Mr Fadnavis, who is also the chairman of MMRDA, had on November 5 told The Asian Age, “I have finally decided that no rent waiver will be given. Only security deposit will be waived off. So, they will be paying rent now.”

However, three days after the announcement, MMRDA says it is clueless. “We have not received any formal communication regarding not waiving any rent for the organisers of Coldplay. As of today, the rent waiver stays as decided by the CM of waiving off 75 per cent rent amount on October 20 during the authority meeting of MMRDA,” said Mr Pravin Darade, additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA.

The much-awaited concert will also feature performances by Bollywood celebrities like Aamir Khan, Arjun Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar and Kareena Kapoor, among others.

The issue of giving rent waiver had become a controversy with the opposition parties saying that rent waiver was a waste of public money and that the timing of the music concert was to influence voters ahead of the upcoming civic polls.

The state cabinet’s committee had last week decided to give concession in the entertainment tax, which is also being challenged by the activists.