NDMC spends R222 crore on consultancy for Games

In its first public disclosure under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has said it paid over R 200 crore to consultants for Commonwealth Games 2010-related work since 2006. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Sep 2, 2010, 24:37:51 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In its first public disclosure under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has said it paid over R 200 crore to consultants for Commonwealth Games 2010-related work since 2006.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) had asked all government bodies to disclose information regarding works undertaken for the Games on its website.

The NDMC was given a deadline till August-end, whereas the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi government have a Sep-end deadline.

CIC Shailesh Gandhi had said the commission would ensure transparency in executing of works related to the Games. The NDMC is the first civic body to make such a disclosure under Section 4 of the RTI Act.

Information available on the council's website shows it paid over R 200 crore as consultancy fees for providing services for execution and supervision of 45 projects in the NDMC area, since 2005. Some of these projects are as yet incomplete.

Information on the website shows that the council had paid several crores of rupees for projects, which have crossed their deadline. For multi-level parking facilities at Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Baba Kharag Singh Marg and Sarojini Nagar, the NDMC has already paid consultants over R 3.6 crore.

The council has already paid R 1.09 crore to private consultants for monitoring construction of a new block and a basement at Shivaji (hockey) Stadium, which will not be ready for the Games. The consultant had got work for two stadiums, of which the Talkatora Stadium, where swimming events will be held, is complete.

One of the heaviest payments made to consultants was for 're-development of Connaught Place'. The council has paid R 14.85 crore to a Government of India undertaking — Engineers India Ltd — for the project between May 2008 and December 2010.

The NDMC declared Connaught Place will not be ready to receive foreign tourists expected for the Games. "Whatever the delay, the NDMC has been prompt in disclosing the information, which is mandatory under the RTI Act," said a CIC official.

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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