New Delhi, Aug. 19: The Centre today reduced Suresh Kalmadi to a figurehead by putting a team of bureaucrats in charge of Commonwealth Games preparations, although the organising committee chief kept denying his wings had been clipped.
Responding to the Games corruption charges, the government also asked public sector units to withhold the promised Rs 260 crore in sponsorship money, and Mamata Banerjee set conditions for the Rs 100 crore pledged by the railway ministry.
As the Centre formed a team of 10 handpicked IAS officers to oversee the preparations at Games venues, Kalmadi insisted that this was his own idea and that the officials would report to him. But a government statement belied his claim.
The bureaucrats, of the ranks of additional and joint secretary, would “solve coordination problems... (and) ensure completion of various assignments in Games venues... and furnish the progress report to the secretary, department of sports, and the cabinet secretary on a day-to-day basis”, the statement said.
The officials can take spot decisions “to tie up any loose end or resolve any conflict between different agencies/organisations”, it added. “The decisions taken by these officers would have to be complied with by the executing agencies at the venue level.”
Sources said the move came at the behest of the Prime Minister and the cabinet secretary.
The government’s order to PSUs to withhold funds came in “the context of the controversies surrounding the Games”, heavy industries and public enterprises minister Vilasrao Deshmukh confirmed.
NTPC, which has already given Rs 20 crore, has put on hold the additional Rs 30 crore it had committed and demanded a government audit. The Power Grid Corporation has withdrawn its promised Rs 10 crore.
On the Rs 100 crore promised for the event in the railway budget, Mamata said: “We’ll give it only after verifying the credentials of the Games’ expenditure.”
Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennell, who is on a two-day visit, inspected Games venues and said all corruption charges should be probed. He said he was satisfied with the overall preparations but wanted work speeded up on finer details like landscaping and cleaning, and identified the Games Village as running behind schedule.
The handover of charge to the bureaucrats comes at a time the venues are being handed over to the organising committee and overlays like air-conditioners and treadmills, worth over Rs 2,000 crore, are being installed. The government team rather than the committee will now oversee this to avert further delays, cost escalations or corruption charges.
The Games begin on October 3 but the bureaucrats will try to finish the work by September 15. “The Games Village will start receiving officials and athletes from September 15,” an official explained.
Sonia Gandhi suggested at a meeting with party MPs that those guilty of Games-related corruption would be punished after the event is over.
Fennell dismissed legendary Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser’s remark that the Games might see a terror attack like the one during the 1972 Munich Olympics, when 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and officials were taken hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists. Fraser, known as a maverick, has asked athletes to boycott the Delhi Games.
“It (her remark) has been dealt with by the Australian Commonwealth Games Association. I think she is not sufficiently informed to make such a statement,” Fennell said.
