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New Delhi: Defending the government over the allegations of corruption and the delay in the preparations for the Commonwealth Games, Sports Minister Manohar Singh Gill on Tuesday reiterated that no attempts were being made to hide anything and said that government was open to full public scrutiny.

Replying to questions raised by the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Gill said, “I am aware of your concerns for the Commonwealth Games. I will take the parliamentarians and press to the stadiums in a week-ten days, we have nothing to hide.”

“Nothing will be hidden or covered up,” he said in his hour-long reply which was repeatedly interrupted by Opposition members, who continued to pose queries on allegations of corruption and diversion of funds.

Stressing the point further, Gill said that the government is also of the view that ‘full public scrutiny ensures public confidence’.

He however, did not openly defend IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi and said that CWG OC member TS Darbari was sacked due to the Sports Ministry’s request. “We are not covering up for anyone, we did our best to make it possible for the RTI act to come in place for the IOA.”
“When we got letter from India’s Dy High Commissioner in London about alleged forgery, I asked Enforcement Directorate to check,” Gill said.

“We are ready to consider any kind of inquiry after October 15. Our government will continue to be there after October 15. Let the focus at present be on the sportspersons when the games are not far off,” Gill told the House.

On the preparedness of the CWG venues, Gill said that the stadiums were ready and the final touches were being given. “Test events of over ten countries have been conducted in the stadiums, the debris will be cleared in a week.”
He claimed that the home advantage for Indian atheletes would be there and added, “Athletes wanted to be trained at our high altitude training centre in Himachal Pradesh, as Delhi’s weather is not very conducive. We’ll however give the players a month to practice.”

Congress member Suresh Kalmadi, who is chairman of the CWG Organising Committee and is in the eye of the storm over corruption charges, was not present during the reply.

Dissatisfied with the reply of the Sports Minister, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj led a noisy walk out of members of BJP and its allies, who chanted “we want JPC” while leaving the House.

Swaraj took offence to Gill’s remarks asking members to take recourse to the RTI route to obtain details of the expenditure for CWG projects.

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This post was submitted by Anil Kumar Chaudhary.