PMO responsible for CWG mess: Gadkari

NEW DELHI - Alleging that the recently held XIXth Commonwealth Games was a victim of rampant bungling, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday squarely blamed the Prime Minister’s Office for the same.

Addressing a press conference here, Gadkari said: “The Games were budgeted at around Rs. 8000 crore which went upto Rs. 70,000 crore with the approval of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet.

“Every CWG file has the Prime Minister’s signature on it. How can the government release such a huge amount of money for the Games, without a thorough enquiry on where the amount is being spent?” asked Gadkari.

Gadkari added: “CWG Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi had a budget of Rs 1,600 crore. Whatever he did is limited to this budget. But what about the Rs 70,000 crore spent on the Games and the role of the Central government and the PMO?”

“We have files with the stamps of the PMO and the Central Government to prove their involvement,” he added.

Demanding a joint parliamentary probe into CWG irregularities, Gadkari said the investigation should include all agencies of the Centre as well as the Delhi Government.

“The files, papers and notes relating to all projects of the Games must be seized immediately. All ministers, officers and OC members should be relieved from CWG work immediately and should be asked to stay away from the Games files. We want a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the entire scam,” he added

He further said several benami financial deals took place in the CWG projects through the Mauritius route and that money was transferred to Swiss accounts.”.

“The Government of India should take up the issue of money laundering with their Swiss counterparts and hold thorough investigations into different accounts. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) must conduct their investigations immediately into the various tax evasions occurred in due course of time. All benami accounts should also be investigated by different agencies,” demanded Gadkari.

He further said that stadia costs were inflated 17 times.

“There is great corruption in the construction of stadiums. All good stadiums cost less than Rs. 60 crore, while the Nehru Stadium cost Rs. 961 crore. In Nagpur, we have a good cricket stadium which cost Rs. 84 crore. Dharamshala stadium cost Rs. 40 crore.”

He also added that out of the 700 billion rupees, only 480.6 billion rupees was spent on athletes, and nobody knows what happened to the rest of the money.

He said the issue would be raised in the winter session of Parliament and added that BJP workers would conduct a nation-wide protest against the issue. (ANI)