Takeover of most venues by August 15, teams on job

Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) Secretary General Lalit Bhanot on Monday said about 700 people have been sent as part of venue operations teams to the stadiums to assess facilities.

The operations teams will start submitting their reports from Monday night. “Most overlay work will be over by August 15 and work will be completed by August 30,” said Bhanot. The OC was supposed to take over all venues from August 1.

Asked about allegations of corruption, Bhanot said: “We are looking into the matter and have asked all venue owners to submit the clearance certificates they have received from the authorities concerned.” Bhanot claimed despite charges of bungling, the OC was spending a lot less on overlays compared to the Games held in other countries.

However, sources said the OC would hold an executive board meeting on August 5 to discuss the charges of misuse of funds. “There is pressure from all board members to look into the allegations, hence a meeting is being organised,” said the source.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government on Monday said it has sent a “point-by-point reply” to all the “queries” raised by the Central Vigilance Commission. Rejecting the allegations of rampant corruption and irregularities, Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta said panic has been created “unnecessarily” as the report by the CVC was a “routine assessment”. “We replied to all the queries point-by-point. It was a routine assessment by the CVC as everybody in the government has to do their job,” Mehta said.

Get quality assurances of venues: CGF asks OC

Concerned over the CVC’s report which points to alleged corruption in various Games related projects, the Commonwealth Games Federation has shot a letter to the Organising Committee. CGF chief executive officer Mike Hooper said: “We are concerned about the implication of the CVC report. We have written to the OC following the release of the report, basically saying that we need assurances, as does the OC, from the venue owners which are essentially the government agencies that all venues are fully compliant with Government of India laws, the building codes etc, all the sanctions and sign offs on that have been obtained,” Hooper said on Monday.