By IANS,
New Delhi : The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), both which support the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from outside, Tuesday criticised it over irregularities in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) preparations and sought replies over utilisation of funds.
Participating in a short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the statement of Sports Minister Ajay Maken regarding CWG 2010, Samajwadi Party leader Mohan Singh said the UPA government “does not appear to be in control for the past two-and-half years”.
He said there has been “loot of crores” in various scandals. He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should take steps to improve the image of the UPA government.
BSP member Satish Kumar Misra said the government has not given details if the diversion of funds by the Delhi government from special component plan for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes for the Games had been reversed.
He said the government had promised an inquiry and said it will provide information. “It is unfortunate that information has not been given,” he said.
Misra said that the procedure concerning the CAG report, including its discussion in the Public Accounts Committee, should be followed till the end.
Both the BSP and the SP support the UPA government from outside but are political adversaries in Uttar Pradesh.
BJP member Prakash Javadekar said he had learnt the the sports ministry has prepared five volumes of documents on correspondence relating to the CWG and all of these documents should be placed on the table of the house.
Alleging that an updated bid appeared in the CWG files in 2004, Javadekar demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the issue.
He said then finance minister P. Chidambaram was tasked to keep a tab on financial matters relating to the CWG and he should explain how there was fraud of thousands of crores in the conduct of games.
Congress member Rashid Alvi put the onus of appointment of Suresh Kalmadi on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and said that BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra had opposed moves by the UPA government in 2004 to appoint the then sports minister as chairman of organising committee.