The State government has renewed the licence for betting at Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) for August, and races will be held on Friday and Saturday.

BTC licence — which has to be renewed every month — for July expired on the last day of that month, and the one for August wasn’t renewed immediately, bringing races and off-track bets to a halt. This was reportedly over a decades-old proposal to shift the BTC out to the outskirts of the city.

“The Chief Minister has termed the renewal a temporary measure. BTC office bearers will meet concerned officials in the coming week and sort out issues that have been raised by the State government, including shifting races out,” Shivakumar Kheny, Chairman, BTC told The Hindu. 

Sources said the Chief Minister also raised the issue of increasing the membership slots at the club by 50, a demand that dates back to 2017. Then too, the Siddaramaiah-led government had not renewed the licence of the club for a few months, bringing races to a halt. There was a proposal to shift BTC out of the core city at that time as well.

Land was a gift

The land on which BTC now stands was gifted to the club by the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore, and the club has challenged the proposal to shift the races out in the Supreme Court, where its petition is still pending.

The State government has now proposed to the BTC to file a joint memo before the Supreme Court accepting to shift out, sources said.

“We seem to have little choice in the matter. However, BTC can shift out only if the general body of the club accepts, and only when an alternative facility is ready. It cannot happen overnight, and the modalities of this need to be worked out, including financial assistance to establish a race course at an alternate site,” a senior steward at the club said.

Two racing days were cancelled since August 1 due to non-renewal of the licence, which will be compensated in the coming weeks, said Mr. Kheny. “There will be races at the Club for four days in the remaining weeks of August in such a way that they do not clash with races at other clubs. This will include races on two days as compensation to the two days when races were scheduled but were not held,” he said, adding off-track bets that were not open during the last ten days couldn’t be compensated in any way.