No beef on menu at Commonwealth Games: organisers

Laying all controversy to rest, the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee has clarified that beef will not be served during the Games scheduled to take place in the national capital later this year.

The organising committee replied an emphatic "no" to a query by Right to Information (RTI) activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, who wanted to know if beef was a compulsory item to be served during the Games, scheduled Oct 3-14.

"Commonwealth Games Federation's requirement from the organising committee is to provide to a quality 24 hour catering service offering nutritious meals and snacks to the athletes and their team officials during Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 taking into consideration, cultural and dietary requirements and the need for variety and rotation of menus. The organising committee is duty bound to carry this out," the committee replied.

The issue had first arisen some months ago when former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh wrote to the organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi asking him to keep beef out of the menu during the Games.

The BJP-led Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had also warned and passed a resolution against serving beef during the event. Recently, the Delhi government had also clarified that beef will not be served during the Games.