Indian Army to ensure smooth running of Commonwealth Games
The Indian government has decided to hire the services of the Army to help organize the Commonwealth Games set to start in October later this year.
The intervention has been deemed necessary after a series of controversies tarnished the image of the Games. As well as jeopardizing the event which is being billed as the showcase event in India’s sporting history.
The Games were badly hit when allegations of corruption were levied against the organizers and sport ministry. Besides the lack of infrastructure development also marred the New Delhi bound sporting extravaganza.
With time running out and uncertainty hovering over, the involvement of Indian Army and their expertise in specific tasks is a step aimed at improving the venues and clearing the surfeit of obstacles.
The government hopes that the Games would be smoother with Army taking care of some of the peculiar tasks that have become a tough challenge for the organizing committee.
The announcement was made by Suresh Kalmadi, who is the Chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, during a press conference after the meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) at New Delhi this weekend.
Kalmadi disclosed that Chairman of the GOM for the Commonwealth Games, S Jaipal Reddy, who is also the federal Minister of Urban Development, wrote a letter to Defence Minister A K Antony.
Kalmadi filed a formal request with the Defence Minister, and asked him to deploy Army personnel besides providing certain other facilities free of charge.
"We have asked for the support from the Army, and Army has been good enough to give us support throughout the Baton Relay, for the opening and closing ceremony, for giving us lots of personnel for the Games, and we are very happy with it”.
The Group of Ministers (GOM), Mr. Jaipal Reddy, had requested the Defence Minister that the Army should do it free of charge. “So, they have agreed to do something free of charge, and something they are charging", said Suresh Kalmadi.
Jaipal Reddy, who wrote the letter, was not willing to disclose the contents of the letter stating that the communication was confidential and cannot be revealed to media.
He added that whilst the content cannot be disclosed certain communication agencies have been asked to act in tandem with the Army and organizing committee.
"I did write to the Defence Minister, not to charge us for several things. Those details I am unable to recall. As per today's meeting of Group of Ministers, we discussed, with focus on the technology network. The MTNL, TCIL, Prasar Bharati, have to get their act together before TSR equipment could be inserted", said S Jaipal Reddy.
Reddy added that besides the deployment of Army some other important decisions were made during the meeting which helped in finalizing some key issues.
Last week the federal government had stripped Kalmadi of most of his powers and appointed a 10-member panel to oversee the smooth operations of the Games.
The panel includes J S Deepak, Amarjeet Singh, Subodh Kumar, S R Rao, Shashi Shekhar, Gopal Krishna, Rohit Nandan and Rajeev Kapoor.
The showpiece event in the Indian capital is set to attract some two million tourists for the sporting extravaganza besides about 10,000 athletes from 71 teams that are representing 54 Commonwealth member states.
The event is set to become the biggest sporting extravaganza since the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi.
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