CWG scam: New stadium costs Rs 84 cr, JLN renovation Rs 961 cr!

If it took just Rs 85 crore for the modernisation of Ferozeshah Kotla stadium then why did the renovation of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium cost Rs 961 crore? This was the CPM’s poser to the government on Monday as allegations of diversion of funds for SC/ST schemes to Commonwealth Games projects rocked Parliament.

“The government should come out with coherent answers on all this,” CPM polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury said at a press conference here. The entire Opposition had together raised an uproar in both Houses of Parliament earlier seeking a debate on the issue.

Mr Yechury said he hoped there would be consensus among Opposition parties on other issues concerning the Commonwealth Games as well.

Quoting official figures for renovation of various stadia, he said that for the Indira Gandhi stadium the amount stood at `669 crore and for the shooting range at `149 crore. On the other hand, the Lal Bahadur stadium in Hyderabad was modernised for `80 crore and the state-of-art stadium in Nagpur was built at `84 crore. “Building a new stadium cost just ` 80 crore and renovating the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium `961 crore,” Mr Yechury said. The renovation of all stadia cost `4459. 48 crore, he said.

The CPM leader, who headed the parliamentary standing committee which submitted a report on the preparedness for the Commonwealth Games last year, said the panel had cautioned about the state of affairs. “We found that none of the targets had been fulfilled. We had said that the pace at which things were moving not more than 40% of the flats would be ready,” he said. Alleging absence of adequate labour laws, he said over 70 workers had lost their lives in the construction process for the games.