JUHI CHAKRABORTY
juhichakraborty@rediffmail.com

LOOTING IN THE NAME OF NATIONAL PRIDE !

Sports from time immemorial have been a display of superhuman feats. The Olympics brought together the disunited Spartans, Athenians, Corinthians, Argos and Megara who were at each other’s throat. The grand Roman gladiatorial shows accomplished unity of sorts of a society split asunder as nobles and slaves.
Come the Commonwealth Games which is more of a wealth game of politicians than anything the common man would love to see. It showcases the cosmic failure of our system – leaking roofs, incomplete stadia, potholed roads and stench of garbage and corruptions galore, to cap it all. The Chinese who hosted the Olympics and South Africa which hosted the FIFA World Cup have many things to learn from us!
Times Now has reported that over £4.50 lakh was transferred to a little known British firm, A M Films, a one-man show which was also receiving £25,000 a month for some time. The deal came to light when the Organising Committee for Commonwealth Games asked for a VAT refund of £14,000 in March.
The deal has all the making of a major scam because there was no written contract between CWG and AM Films. To cap it all, the British Revenue and Customs Department has asked the Indian High Commission to probe the matter.
An RTI application found that about Rs 265 crore from the ‘Scheduled Caste Sub Plan’ for Delhi, has been used to pay for the CWG. More than 100,000 poor slum-dwellers have been evicted (with more likely).

So far, 42 workers are dead, toiling in the most pathetic conditions. Over 6 lakh workers are employed in the Capital, for whose welfare a cess of Rs 400 crore has been collected. But each one is paid just Rs 130 a day with no medical benefits if he falls ill.

The original estimate was around Rs 1,900 crore, later revised to Rs 10,000 crore. Recent independent estimates now suggest it will exceed Rs 30,000 crore. All in the name of national pride!