Funds to flow freely for 2010

Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit definitely had a reason to cheer after the Group of Ministers? meeting on the 2010 Commonwealth Games on Friday.

Published on: May 13, 2006, 01:36:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit definitely had a reason to cheer after the Group of Ministers’ (GoM) meeting on the 2010 Commonwealth Games on Friday.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram's has given Dikshit complete assurance that money will not be an obstacle for transforming Delhi into a world-class city for the 2010.

"We are not a poor country. Money will not prevent us from holding games of international standards," Chidambaram reportedly told the GoM on Friday.

Earlier, Youth Affairs Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had asked the Delhi Government to reduce its fund requirement from Rs 1,200 crore to Rs 500 crore. The money is required for building flyovers, roads and improve infrastructure for the Games.

Aiyar had reportedly stated that the Delhi government's financial estimate was on the higher side and could not be met from the budget of his ministry.

He had asked Delhi government on Wednesday to submit a revised proposal to the GoM as per the reduced allocation.

Dikshit had reportedly opposed downsizing of the allocation and said it would adversely impact the overall organisation of the Games. Sources say, different aspects of downsizing were discussed before Chidambaram gave his assurance.

The allocation to the Delhi Development Authority for improving the stadium was reduced from Rs 501 crore to Rs 490 crore, whereas the Games organising committee's allocation was reduced by about Rs 50 crore.

Sources, however, say that the organising committee has been allowed to raise money from the market.

"The committee has assured a revenue neutral model where in the money required for organising the games will be returned after the games are over," a source said.

For others, raising money from the market has been ruled out.

Chidambaram's has asked the Delhi government and the DDA to put forth proposals for infrastructure improvement projects and get it cleared from the respective Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC).

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

Check India news real-time updates, latest news on Hindustan Times and more across India.