Commonwealth Games in India hit massive corruption scandal
Starting from October 3 till October 14, the famous Commonwealth Games will be organized in the capital city of India, New Delhi.
71 nations are participating in the event and this year’s event is going to be the most expensive in the history of the Games. Almost two billion dollars have been spent on the infrastructure and on the organization of the event.
But as is usual with India, the government and the CW organizing committee have being accused of corruption and embezzlement. This accusation has shaken the reputation of the Indian government and the organizing committee who are already struggling with only two months left for the preparation to end.
Another misery added to the already troubled event is the leakage in the roof of the weightlifting stadium due to heavy rain. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi was inaugurated on 1st August.
But the most flaming criticism regarding the Commonwealth Games are the corruption allegations on the Indian Government and the games organizing committee, due to which, the image of India has been shattered in front of the world.
The government agency, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), assigned to watch the allegations, in a report revealed huge irregularities of several millions in the tender issued for Commonwealth Games. The CVC has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to register a corruption case against all those officials that are involved in various projects.
The CVC reported massive corruption, including awarding work at higher rates to bidders, poor quality of construction and allocation of work to ineligible organizations in different construction works that are related to the games.
The Chief Technical Examination Wing of CVC mentioned in their report that a number of corruption and procedural violations have been made. The estimated cost of different projects in the event is nearly Rs. 2,000 billion.
As a result, the Prime Minister of India ordered his cabinet to review the status of all projects.
Recently, a leading private news channel, Times, exposed another scandal related to the event. The television news channel claimed that the organizing committee granted a big amount of money through the Royal Bank of Scotland to an event management firm in London. The firm is known as AM films and it is a small firm that is not largely known.
According to the scandal, the organizing committee of the Commonwealth Games transferred funds of worth 2, 47,469 Pounds to AM Films UK Limited in October 2009.
The funds were transferred during the Queen's Baton Relay function in London. 25,000 pounds are being transferred every month into the account of AM Films, in addition to the amount that was transferred in October 2009.
So far, a total amount of 4, 50,000 pounds have been transferred to London. Due to this controversy, the British Government has raised questions over this entire matter.
The Chairman of the Games Organizing Committee, Suresh Kalmadi, denied all the allegations and charges. Whereas the Union Minister for Sports, M S Gill, announced that he would take serious action against all those who are involved in the corruption allegations.
The major opposition party in India, Bharatia Janata Party, demanded judicial inquiry into the entire corruption scandal, but after the conclusion of the event. The BJP stressed that the image of India is at risk and therefore it is important that the event should conclude successfully.
As the image of China flourished and appeared as a powerful nation in front of the world after organizing the Olympics, India too was believed to show its strength before the entire world. But even before it starts, the event has brought shame to India and damaged the image of India.
According to an unofficial source, the Government of India have already invested Rs 35,000 thousand crore for the Commonwealth Games. But a huge amount from this money has gone to the bank accounts of the Organizing Committee officials and not for the functioning of the Games.
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