New Delhi: In view of complaints against the CWG Organising Committee headed by Suresh Kalmadi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was open to an idea of restructuring it in 2007, but it did not materialise as no concrete proposal came forth.
Sports Minister Ajay Maken suggested this as he insisted that nothing could be done about Kalmadi because he had been elected OC Chairman by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the UPA government was bound by the Host City Agreement (HCC) signed by the previous NDA government with the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF).
Maken disagreed with the observations of the CAG that the decision to appoint Kalmadi as the OC Chairman facilitated conversion of the originally envisaged government-owned OC into a body outside government control.
"There was a contract between the government of India and others and the Commonwealth Games Federation which mandated that the Games would be conducted by the OC set up by the IOA," he said, referring to the HCC of November 13, 2003.
He noted that Mani Shankar Aiyar had written a letter to the PMO on October 23, 2007 and to the Prime Minister two days later. The then Sports Secretary SK Arora also wrote a letter to PMO on the issue of OC.
"These three letters raised concern about inadequacy of government presence in the Executive Board of the OC, financial profligacy and inadequate compliance with procedure in OC," he said.
Comments
0 comment