Centre admits Sheila diverted SC/ST fund for Games

The Centre has admitted that the Sheila Dikshit government violated guidelines to divert funds meant for Schedules Castes and Tribes to finance its pets projects for the Commonwealth Games.

“In view of the guidelines of 2006, these appear to be wrong,” home minister P Chidambaram said in the Rajya Sabha during a discussion on the diversion of nearly Rs 678 crore from the funds for Scheduled Castes and Tribes for the Commonwealth Games. The admission comes at a time when the Delhi government is under attack from the rivals for its reluctance to conduct governance in an ethical manner.

The Rajya Sabha witnessed disruptions by BSP MPs over the issue, which came to light through a Right to Information application.

According to the information given by Delhi government to an RTI petitioner, nearly Rs 678 crore from Delhi’s special component plan, which was meant for improving the standard of living of the poor sections of the community through various government schemes and programmes, was diverted for Games projects.

In his reply, Mr Chidambaram said that Delhi government had got around Rs 8,000 crore for five years from 2006-7 to 2009-10, under the special component plan. “As is common practice with various other state governments, Delhi had divided this fund into two categories — divisible and indivisible.” The divisible category was for schemes which affected the Scheduled Castes and Tribes directly. “While Rs 983 crore was in the divisible category, the rest — Rs 7,100 crore — was in the indivisible category. Out of that (indivisible category), Rs 678 crore was contributed to CWG projects,” the home minister said.

“This seems to be prima-facie wrong,” Mr Chidambaram admitted, but added: “This happens not just in NCT, but in all states.” He said that Delhi government had told him that the amount diverted will be added to the Plan funds for the next financial year. The minister said that the Planning Commission was seized of the matter and had set up a committee to look into the diversion of funds in all states.

MCD seeks public help to clean city before Games

Having failed to clean the city before Commonwealth Games, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has now sought public participation. The civic body, along with voluntary organisation Let's Do It Delhi, on Tuesday announced a `Clean Delhi Challenge' to be held on September 11.

The idea is to include community groups, educational institutions and corporates in a special sanitation drive-cum-contest across the city on that day. Mayor Prithvi Raj Sawhney said the initiative will be open to all organisations, residents' welfare associations, companies, colleges, NGOs and government departments. "All groups entering the contest will get a certificate from MCD and there will be special winners' certificates for groups based on the volume of litter collected as well as how clean they have made an area," Sawhney said.

`Let's Do It Delhi' programme director Anita Bharghav gave the example of Estonia where 50,000 people cleaned up the entire country, collecting 10,000 tonnes of garbage, in five hours. "We can also play our part in improving sanitation conditions in the city. Everybody can join. Let's do it,'' she said.

The mayor said among those who have confirmed their participation are ICICI, KPMG, Genpact, Jindals, LSR College, Sanskriti School, a group of civil servants in Ekta Vihar, Radisson Hotel and occupants of New Friend's Colony community centre. Leader of the House Subhash Arya and MCD standing committee chairman Yogender Chandolia said such campaigns should focus on unauthorised colonies and urban villages where the situation is worse than other parts of the city. Facing a volley of questions on why such campaigns only focus on so-called posh areas while localities like Jamia Nagar are left struggling with unhygenic conditions and dengue outbreak, the mayor said the September 11 contest was open to people from all parts of the city.

For the challenge, participants will have to choose a location of at least half-a-square kilometer, get their own volunteers or hire cleaners. The litter collected will be taken away by the MCD later. The winners will be chosen from 12 MCD zones by a panel of judges.

DDA to ready only 1,600 flats in Vasant Kunj

Despite its assurance on August 6 that 4,000 flats in Vasant Kunj will be ready in time for the Commonwealth Games, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) admitted at a recent meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers that it will now only deliver 1,600 rooms for the October event.

Sources at the Organising Committee (OC) have also revealed that the completed flats are not up to the expected ‘international standards’, and only national technical staff will be accommodated in them. International technical staff will now be accommodated at hotels. The DDA, meanwhile, said it has not been informed of this decision yet.

The recent revelation is yet another in a long string of embarrassments for the land authority. The DDA was tasked with constructing the flats and the Indian Tourism Development Corporation was handed the task of furnishing them.

While the national technical staff will be accommodated in 1,600 flats, the rest were meant to accommodate tourists.

“The OC’s original requirement for its staff was approximately 1,600 rooms, which we will deliver in time. ITDC is working on furnishing those rooms right now,” said Nand Lal, Finance Member, DDA. When asked if the Ministry of Tourism was unhappy with the news as the rest of the flats were to accommodate tourists, Nand Lal added, “Not at all. They have enough rooms to accommodate tourists.”

DDA officials also said that as a result of the security restrictions around the flats where the Games staff will be accommodated, it would have been difficult to accommodate tourists. The remaining flats will be ready after the Games, and allotted by way of the DDA’s usual draw system.

While the land agency claimed the Vasant Kunj flats were originally part of its usual housing construction and were to be ready

by December this year, in April last year, with concerns paramount about tourist accommodation during the Games, it had volunteered to get its flats ready in time for the event.

Earlier in July, DDA’s two main contractors on the job — M/S Brahmaputra and M/S A K Mehta — had expressed serious reservations about being able to complete the flats on time. Following negotiations with them, DDA had decided that 4,000 flats will be completed instead of the original 5,000. The DDA’s Engineering Union had then protested that its engineers were being pressurised to finish work on these flats, which may result in sub-standard construction.

The DDA had then allayed fears on August 6 by assuring that the quality of the flats would be above par and that 4,000 flats will be ready for the Games.

Special cover on Queen's Baton relay released

A special cover was released here yesterday to commemorate Queen's Baton Relay for the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi.

This was a sequel to a set of two commemorative postage stamps issued by the Postal department when the Queen's Baton arrived in the country crossing the Wagah border, an official release said today.

The Postal department had taken a decision to release special cover on which these two commemorative stamps would be affixed, in all those 34 places through which the Queen's Baton would be passing through.

At the end of the run of the Queen's Baton, an album will be prepared with all the 34 special covers with the commemorative stamps affixed on it, which would be displayed at the venues of the Commonwealth Games to be held from October 3 to 14.

1,900 new buses to drive in for CWG

Delhiites will witness around 1,900 new buses making their debut on city roads during the Commonwealth Games. The vehicles will be brought in to ensure hassle-free transportation for athletes, officials and spectators during the mega-event from October 3 to 14.

Of these, a fleet of 600 air-conditioned low-floor buses to be provided by Tata Motors would be dedicated to ferrying sportsmen, media personnel and technicians.

While 349 buses would be used to ferry athletes during the Games, including the days of the opening and closing ceremonies on 25 routes identified for the purpose, 225 would be used by mediapersons and technical officials. “The remaining 26 buses will kept on standby for usage in cases of any emergency such as sudden breakdowns, etc. Transportation is going to be the backbone of the Games, and we are committed to providing the best facilities to athletes and commuters,” a senior Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) official told Newsline.

In a major thumbs-up for the DTC, which has been given the responsibility of ensuring a smooth ride for participants by the organising committee, the Supreme Court also permitted them to de-activate speed governors in 600 buses recently.

Standing Counsel for the Delhi government Najmi

Waziri had, on the last date of hearing in the High Court regarding the Blueline phase-out, informed the apex court about the pending applications along with a submission that the government was committed to effect a viable and convenient mass transportation system in the city, complementing its Metro Rail services.

“We were required to approach the SC for getting these speed governors removed as they had been installed on court orders. Earlier, the buses could not accelerate beyond 40 km per hour. But we had to get special permission for the buses meant for athletes as we cannot afford to take any chances with their safety in case of emergencies,” the official said.

People coming in to watch the international event are also in for a fun ride, with the DTC making 1,667 buses available to them under the ‘park and ride’ facility. “These buses will carry spectators from designated spots, where they can park their vehicles, and take them to the stadiums,” he added.

By the end of the Games, the city would have at least 1,000 additional buses on its roads. “By the end of September, we will have around 6,500 buses on the streets and 600 brand new buses, to be used exclusively for the athletes and others,” the official said.

Police verification of Games volunteers has barely begun

The antecedents of only 1,591 volunteers - of the 20,000 chosen for the Commonwealth Games - have been verified and the remaining are yet to get the green signal from Delhi Police even as the mega sporting event is just 34 days away.

Police have not set a deadline for the process and say verification is done as and when the Games organising committee sends in the names of volunteers.

"We have set no deadline for the (completion of) verification of volunteers. We will keep on doing that till the organising committee continues to send us the forms. We are committed to completing the process at the earliest,"
Rajan Bhagat, spokesperson of Delhi Police, told IANS.

Bhagat also denied allegations that police were facing a staff crunch for verification of volunteers. "When we get a large number of applications, we distribute them among different branches so that verification is completed in time," said Bhagat.

According to Delhi Police, they are still receiving forms from the organising committee for verification of contractors, caterers, sponsors and others related to the sporting event.

All those who need to enter the Games venues during the Oct 3-14 event will be issued accreditation cards and no one will be allowed inside the venues without the cards, officials said.

Bhagat said under no circumstances would any person be allowed inside a Games venue without a valid card.

In June, the organising committee had reduced the number of volunteers for the sporting event from an initial 30,000 to 22,000. Of those selected, only 19,724 turned up for training.

The selected volunteers have been imparted three days of intensive training in various aspects like medical assistance, disaster management, gender sensitivity, doping test and protocols.

According to senior officials, the special branch of police is handling the verification process. The character verification department in the branch is headed by an assistant commissioner of police and has one inspector and a few subordinates.

The special branch also carries out verification related to passports and character verification requests from public.

As per police officials, the verification process is multi-layered. "We want everyone to be verified by police and then by the organising committee," said an official.

"We have carried out verification of even policemen who will be deployed inside stadia," he said. "All those who will go inside stadia, be it volunteers or artists, need to be verified."

While most contractors will get access to venues as per operational needs, some of them will be issued special passes, with multiple entry facility, according to the nature of their job function, said the official.

Indian hockey squad for Commonwealth Games announced

A 16-member Indian hockey squad for the Commonwealth Games was announced Monday. Rajpal Singh will lead the team for the Oct 3-14 event.

"The team was selected after the trials conducted at Balewadi, Pune, in the presence of Hockey India selectors Balbir Singh and B.P. Govinda, government nominees Ajitpal Singh and Zafar Iqbal besides the foreign coach Jose Brasa
and national coach Harendra Singh," Hockey India said in a statement Monday.

The Indian team is currently training at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.

Squad:
Defenders: Sardar Singh, Sandeep Singh, Dhananjay Mahadik, Gurbaj Singh, Prabodh Tirkey Midfielders: Arjun Halappa, Vikram Pillay, Ravi Pal, Bharat Chikara, Danish Mujtaba Sarvanjit Singh Forwards: Rajpal Singh (captain), Tushar Khandker, Shivendra Singh, Dharamvir Singh. Goalkeeper: Bharat Chetri