CWG corruption rocks Lok Sabha

LS was adjourned after the Opposition launched an attack over the alleged financial irregularities on CWG.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned at 1 pm on Friday after the Opposition launched a concerted attack on the Union government over the alleged financial irregularities in the Commonwealth Games panel.

After a debate on the issue on a ‘calling attention’ motion moved by CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta,the Opposition shook the House when Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy got ready to reply.

The Opposition said the Union government could not reply on the issue now and argued that a full-fledged discussion on it was already scheduled. They said the government should reply then.

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha,Sushma Swaraj,said there was no need for the government to reply as the matter had ‘only come up for discussion’ on Friday.

Speaker Meira Kumar also said she had given permission to Reddy to reply on the motion. He should have been allowed to speak,she maintained.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal said it was unprecedented that a minister was stopped from speaking.

CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia demanded setting up of a JPC on the “large-scale corruption scam”,alleging that while a cricket stadium in Hyderabad was constructed at Rs 90 crore,the renovation of Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Delhi cost over Rs 961 crore.

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“There is no accountability. No one has been held responsible. Government says it does not have money to supply foodgrains,” Acharia said,with Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) saying this was “a loot of public money” as over Rs 50,000 crore was being spent on the games.

Seeking to counter the opposition,Congress member Sanjay Nirupam said it does not behove some of the opposition leaders to talk about corruption,a statement that led to protests. “You can’t hang a person against whom charges have been made without trial”.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour,he recalled that in the 1982 Asian Games,then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was personally monitoring the projects by visiting the sites.

“What is happening today is total chaos and disaster,bringing the country to shame. … You (government) are proving to the world that India is incapable of holding the games. Shame,” he said.

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The JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav and his SP counterpart Mulayam Singh Yadav claimed that the actual cost of hosting the CWG was around Rs 1 lakh crore,which was being spent in a surreptitious manner.

p>The Opposition members then trooped to the well of the House forcing an adjournment.

(With PTI inputs)

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