Calcutta: The controversy concerning the groundsmen seemed to be heading towards no definite solution, with the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) blaming the warring group of making the whole issue a “one-point agenda” and the malis alleging the CAB of talking to everybody barring them, on the matter.

On Tuesday, CAB joint-secretary Samar Paul said that since the working committee dismissed the issue at its meeting on Monday, it was impossible for the organisation to make the malis permanent employees.

“The issue came up during Tuesday’s working committee meeting, and it was decided that it’s impossible to make them permanent. Not only the malis work for the CAB through an agency, there are lot of other people who work in the same way… Like the electricians, the people who look after the air-conditioners and so on,” Paul said.

The association’s other joint secretary, Amitava Banerjee, however, stressed on the fact that the CAB was ready to discuss all other issues, including a raise in daily wages, medical facilities and other perks with the dissidents.

“They are making it a one-point agenda which is not acceptable. The working committee has given the go-ahead to discuss all other issues. They are refusing to collect their wages, which is not right,” Banerjee said.

But a senior mali, who has been working at the Eden for about 15-16 years, said that the CAB has not spoken to them in the recent past.

“They are talking to everybody, but nobody has spoken a word to us. We are ready to discuss the issue but somebody has to talk to us or give us something in writing,” the groundsman said.

But he stressed that they would like to stick to their point of being removed from the private agency’s payroll, though not without a reason.

“Few days back, one of us died and he had a little more than Rs 5000 in his provident fund account. That was everything his family received. His son was too young to work and an official in the agency offered the mali’s“Few days back, one of us died and he had a little more than Rs 5000 in his provident fund account. That was everything his family received. His son was too young to work and an official in the agency offered the mali’s wife a job as a maid in one of his relative’s house. We understood that it was going to be our fate too,” he said.

CAB joint-secretary Banerjee informed that the CAB would sit down with the groundsmen within a few days, preferably after the end of the ongoing P. Sen Trophy tournament.

But the malis have a different story to tell. “When we spoke to them before the IPL, they said they would talk to us after the IPL. Now they are saying they would talk after the P. Sen Trophy. They always promise to talk when they come under pressure, but after a few days they forget their promise,” the mali alleged.

On an emotional note, the mali signed off saying: “We always think about the CAB’s prestige. We have not been taking our wages since the last five months… But we have never stopped doing a single day’s duty. We have also worked our hearts out during the IPL. But, it’s only that the CAB doesn’t think about us.”