Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Commonwealth Games may have been over last year, but its legacy continues to haunt the government. The fancy lights and signboards installed before the Games are now the focus of the CAG audit on CWG spending.
Now, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has found herself in the middle of the muddle of the controversy.
The CAG report said just street lighting alone caused a loss of over Rs 31 crore. The PWD bought imported luminaries which cost Rs 32,000, while indigenous lights cost Rs 15,160.
But it's the role of the Delhi Chief Minister that's come in for special mention where street lighting is concerned.
One of the bidders Spaceage switchgear was declared disqualified by the PWD. Spaceage appealed to the Chief Minister and was later found to be eligible.
Spaceage supplied low cost luminaries of Saudi make costing Rs 5,040 per piece, but it charged the Delhi government Rs 25,704 per piece earning a super profit of Rs 2.68 crore.
The Delhi government has said Spaceage approached court against the disqualification.
The consignment of potted plants is another CWG legacy that is being blamed squarely on the Delhi Chief Ministeer.
Over 60 lakh plants were bought for over Rs 24 crore by the Delhi government, with the cost ranging between Rs 44 and Rs 65 per plant. The Chief Minister approved the purchase of the plants, said the CAG.
The PWD admitted that of the 3.82 lakh potted plants bought by them, a third costing nearly Rs 79 lakh perished, and the rest were given to government offices. CAG teams visited the offices but could not find the potted plants.
But the Chief Minister remains non committal at the moment.
While till now Suresh Kalmadi had been a byword for corruption, the CAG report has slammed all civic agencies supposedly working for the Commonwealth Games project - the MCD, the NDMC and the PWD. But once the report is tabled, not just the Delhi CM Sheila Dixit will have to answer the toughest questions, the report could end up embarrassing an already embattled Congress party.
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