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Thursday, September 9, 2010

Commonwealth Games: Who is responsible for the mess?

COMMONWEALTH GAMES were allotted to Delhi in 2003. In 2004, the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee under Suresh Kalmadi was set up. Six years were available to the Government of India (Ministry of Sports/Sports Authority of India), Delhi government, Organising Committee and other agencies for the preparations of Commonwealth Games 2010. Now, every institution is playing the blame game and passing on the buck to others.
Who was responsible for the coordination with various agencies? Clearly, it was Ministry of Sports, Government of India and the Organising Committee under Kalmadi. The Organising Committee had coordination sub-committees for both civic and sports infrastructure. What these sub-committees had been doing for the last six years? We have to remember that all these six years prior to the Games, Congress was in power both at the Centre and in Delhi. Kalmadi is also a Congress MP.
Mani Shankar Aiyar has been crying hoarse now over the Games’ mess. What was he doing when he was sports minister? Why didn’t he resign then when he could not prevail upon Kalmadi? What is the point of shrieking now?
A group of ministers (GoM) under Union Minister of Urban Development (Jaipal Reddy) has been operational during the last five years. The Minister of Urban Development was made chairman of this GoM because CPWD, which is executing most of the infrastructure projects, is under this ministry. This GoM was also supposed to monitor the preparations for the Games. What this GoM has been doing during the last five years in the light of corruption complaints, gross delays, shoddy execution, etc. To top it all, why the Prime Minister and his overarching Cabinet Secretary and PMO could not sense the mess well in advance and take remedial actions?
Kalmadi’s Organising Committee has an executive board (governing body). Four directors on this board are from the government namely, secretary (Sports) and financial advisor from Sports Ministry, one officer each from Union Ministry of Urban Development and Delhi government. It was the first and foremost duty of this executive board to monitor the Games’ preparations and take all policy decisions for the Organising Committee’s activities. What this executive board and especially these four government directors were doing all these six years?
A number of civil and sports infrastructure projects fall under the domain of Delhi government. What Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, her ministers and her senior officers were doing all these six years?
Nation demands answer to the above questions. These questions involve national pride and huge public money. Accountability of each functionary/institution has to be fixed.

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