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جمعرات، 23 ستمبر، 2010

Corrupt Indian CWG management hides behind ISI bogey

The massive corruption the Indians have been indulging in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games (CWG)-2010, which are being held at New Delhi from October 3 to 13. The Daily Mail had warned that India will try and blame ISI for disrupting the CWG since a number of countries had expressed reservations towards the security threats. The corruption scandals tainting the CWG management had been taken cognizance of by the Indian media, which is filled with exposés highlighting various scams and details of the sleaze and perfidy surrounding the games. The Daily Mail had also closely examined some of the details, which start with evidence of corruption in construction projects and illegal cash transfers. Officials of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), India’s government watchdog agency brought to light that construction quality certificates scrutinized in 16 Games-related projects had turned out to be “fake or suspect”. Fake certificates were routinely issued to pass substandard work and material, which have led to very big gains for vendors and contractors. The Indian High Commission in UK was also steeped in the mire of corruption with respect to the CWG and it was revealed that contracts were awarded without following the specified procedure. A firm even received cheque for the work done by another firm. The controversy surrounding financial irregularities during Queen’s Baton Relay came to light when it was learnt that huge amount of money was forked out to a firm in London by the Commission for hiring taxis. Another corruption scandal pertains to funds being transferred from the Commonwealth Games account to a little-known film company based in London. AM Films, an obscure event management firm in London received bulky amount of money from the Games Organizing Committee through Royal Bank of Scotland. The British Government has raised questions over this. According to the exposé, funds worth 2, 47, 469 Pounds were transferred in Oct 2009 from the Organizing Committee of the Commonwealth Games to a UK-based company AM Films UK Ltd. The money was transferred during the Queen’s Baton Relay function in London. In addition to that money, 25,000 pounds are being transferred into AM Films account every month.
Altogether, about 4, 50,000 pounds have transferred to London so far. Adding to the woes of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee, the roof of the weightlifting auditorium, in New Delhi Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which was inaugurated on August 01, started leaking profusely due to heavy showers. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), a government watchdog body, in its report revealed massive irregularities in a tender issued for a Commonwealth Games project worth several crores. In the report prepared by CVC’s Chief Technical Examination Wing, far-reaching procedural violations, including corruption, have been noticed in 16 projects. The latest bombshell is the collapse of an under-construction foot over bridge near Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, due to negligence and use of substandard materials by the contractors. However, to hide their sleaze and cloak their corruption, the organizers have chosen to target their favourite whipping boy ISI. Indian External Affairs minister SM Krishna has alleged that Pakistani ’state-actors’ and ‘hired guns’ are behind the latest calamity to hit the games – the collapse of the over bridge on Tuesday afternoon. His comments were backed up by the Secretary General of the four member CWG committee Dr. Lalit K. Bhannot, who is responsible for the technical aspects of conducting the Games and coordinating activities of the sub-committees. It is a shameful and disturbing development that Indian graft and sleaze is being covered in this manner. Pakistan should throw such malicious suggestions out of the window, however, reportedly, Pakistan’s Interior Minister, when asked for comments, confirmed that he has ordered an investigation on his side. There should not be even a semblance of accepting the Indian ridiculous charges. We should leave no stone unturned in refuting such aspersions and condemn such evil machination to besmirch ISI’s good name to cover Indian ineptitude and perfidy.

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