Unsold Games passes grabbed by volunteers

At least 20 per cent of seats at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium were empty during the opening ceremony.

At least 20 per cent of seats at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium were empty during the opening ceremony.
Insiders said the passes for these seats were hoarded by the officials of Organising Committee (OC) and were taken by volunteers and trainees when the ceremony started at 7 pm on Sunday.

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Bundles of passes kept at the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) were not sold on time and finally, when the show began, some volunteers and trainees took 25-30 passes each.

“There was no control over the distribution and sale of tickets. Some randomly picked passes in lots,” said a workforce executive on condition of anonymity.

The tickets for the opening ceremony cost R1000, R5000, R25,000 and R50,000.

Anticipating that there would be no buyers for the tickets in the higher range, free passes were distributed to the who's who of Delhi. At least 217 passes were distributed by the Ministry of Sports to various Members of Parliament and other dignitaries.

People with these expensive tickets got a chance to get a seat in West Gate Box that was adjacent to the Royal Box where President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prince Charles were seated.

Despite repeated attempts Monica Jolly, the OC official responsible for ticketing, was not available for comments.
“There were rumours that tickets were being sold in the black market but when we checked we did not find
anything. But we are still investigating,” said a senior police officer.