Govt goes slow on action against CWG corruption

The GoM to consider Shunglu panel on games corruption have not met for last one year.

Updated on: Aug 23, 2012, 01:31:45 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government has adopted a go-slow approach on charges of financial irregularities in execution of projects for the Commonwealth Games 2010.

A Group of Ministers headed by Defence Minister A K Antony constituted in July 2011 had not met since last September resulting in the government not acting on any of the specific recommendations by V K Shunglu committee on irregularities in execution of projects for the games.

Shunglu committee had submitted a set of six reports to the government on different sectors involved in executing the games such as Delhi Government, Sports Ministry, Delhi Development Authority and the games organizing committee. The panel had estimated loss to exchequer worth several thousand crores and made several recommendations including identifying those responsible for the lapses to the government and new mechanism for monitoring of key infrastructure projects.
Acting fast, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up a GoM to examine the Shunglu panel reports and suggest administrative changes to prevent repeat of such a scam. He also wanted the GoM to submit its recommendations within a few months.

The GoM, in its first meeting on August 16, 2011 had sought comments of all departments on the recommendations of the panel and sought specific comments on disagreement with the recommendations. It was also decided that the GoM will consider each report of the panel.

The second meeting of the GoM held on September 6 deliberated on the panel’s finding on host broadcaster for the games, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati. The GoM on most of the issues decided not to act on the ground that instances of alleged abuse of authority was already under investigation.

“It may not be necessary at this stage to express a view on this,” the GoM observed, while absolving the Information and Broadcasting ministry of any intended misconduct and blaming Prasar Bharati for irregularities.

The third and the last meeting of the GoM was held on September 27, 2011 regarding the Commonwealth Games village development with the help of private party. The Urban Development ministry, which controls the DDA, made a detailed presentation not agreeing with the recommendations of the panel. The meeting ended with the GoM observing that the response of the ministry requires further deliberations.

Government officials said that since then the GoM has not met and Shunglu panel’s observations against the biggest spenders for the games -- the Delhi government --- had not been considered so far. The GoM is yet to consider reports on functioning of the games organizing committee headed by Suresh Kalmadi, who has been released on bail.

The government has gone slow on plugging administrative flaws to prevent repeat of irregularities during Commonwealth Games 2010 with the Group of Ministers headed by Defence Minister A K Antony not having met for almost a year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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