Aiyar questioned CWG budget way back in 2006

Scams related to Commonwealth Games 2010 might have surfaced late last year, but the then Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had raised questions over the unusual increase in the budget for the mega event as early as in 2006.

New Delhi: Scams related to Commonwealth
Games 2010 might have surfaced late last year, but the then Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had raised questions over the unusual increase in the budget for the mega event as early
as in 2006.

In a series of letters to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh since March 2006, Aiyar had expressed his doubts over
the functioning of CWG OC and sought removal of its chief
Suresh Kalmadi.

An RTI reply received from the Prime Minister`s Office
(PMO) to Subhash Chandra Agrawal shows that Aiyar had written
a letter dated March 9, 2006 seeking an urgent meeting with
Singh to discuss the "gargantuan gap" between the expenditure
projections for the games given in 2003 and the revised
estimates of 2006.

"The gap is not only gargantuan, it also seems to be
growing. As against the figure of Rs 150 crore for physical
infrastructure projected in 2003, current estimates have been
ramped up to over Rs 5,000 crore. On the organisation of the
games, the 2003 projection of Rs 250 crore has already been
ramped up to nearly Rs 900 core," Aiyar had pointed out.

In another letter dated October 25, 2007, Aiyar said
he was "increasingly alarmed at the profligacy of OC Chairman
"after learning that the 2007 Military Games in Hyderabad --
in which three quarter of the total athletes and officials
expected for CGW had participated -- was conducted
successfully under a budget of Rs 200 crore.

The expenditure projection for CWG at that time had
been increased to Rs 20,000 crore.

PTI

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