When India bid for the Commonwealth Games in 2003, the budget to upgrade facilities in New Delhi was estimated at about Rs300 crore. Now, according to various estimates, that figure oscillates between Rs10,000 crore and Rs30,000 crore.
Soccer World Cup 2010According to a “white paper” released by an NGO using the Right to Information Act, government papers, expert inputs and media reports, the Commonwealth Games are going to be a massive white elephant and the people of Delhi will have to bear the cost.
Already taxes have been increased to pay for the games. Whose wealth and whose commons, asks the report of the India chapter of the Housing and Land Rights Network, which puts the cost at Rs30,000 crore.
Whenever such large sums of money are involved in any project there is outrage.But the more pertinent questions are about how the money is being spent and not why. Will the infrastructure benefit the people beyond the duration of the games? Has the budget gone up so drastically because of bad planning and implementation or because the number of projects under its ambit has increased? Are other government wings using the games to slip in work which they have neglected for so long? How much of the budget went into the project, and how much into graft?
And the most important question of all — will there be
transparency in the accounting so the people know where the money went?.
If these questions can be satisfactorily answered, then it could well be argued that the investment in the games is in some sense an investment in our future. Not only have we improved ourselves, but we have also left behind a legacy which others can use. There is no doubt that amongst India’s many “crying needs”,
infrastructure, including sports infrastructure, is high on our list.
However, conversely, it is easy to understand the cynicism and scepticism. All too often, giant projects are nothing more than excuses for sections of the political class and the bureaucracy to line their pockets. If that was not bad enough, the work that is eventually presented to us is shoddy and ill-thought-out. If the questions are answered by the government then we will have a better idea of what we have let ourselves in for.
This may require an independent monitoring authority to check the progress of various projects under the Commonwealth Games scheme. It must question the delays and give the nation the answers it needs. A well-spent Rs30,000 crore is still an investment in the future. Everything else is what one has always suspected — a scam
