U-17 World Cup: Free drinking water to be given at Kochi

Kochi, Oct 8 (IANS) With complaints surfacing of fleecing by traders who supply drinking water and food items at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here, the venue of the U-17 FIFA World Cup, authorities have stepped in and announced that from now on, the Kerala government will provide free drinking water.

On Sunday, state government official Mohammed Hanish, who is the nodal officer of the event, told the media that the decision has been already made and drinking water will be available for free at 40 places in the stadium.

"We have also asked the Legal Metrology department to take appropriate action on all complaints received," he added.

The first two matches were held on Saturday and all the 29,000 tickets were sold out. However, numerous complaints have come about a bottle of water that should be sold for Rs 19 was sold at Rs 40.

Reports have also surfaced that the food items available were also priced very high.

Kochi is the venue of Group D matches which have teams of Brazil, Spain, Niger and North Korea.

By now all the tickets have been sold out and on Saturday a few people was taken into custody for engaging in black marketing of tickets.

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