Aiyar & Kalmadi’s tug-of-war slowing preparations for Games

Kalmadi thinks it shouldn’t. He believes that, since it was the Indian Olympic Association that won the bid for hosting the games, it is the IOA and the Commonwealth Games Federation that should manage the event.

Now there are two committees, an apex committee headed by Aiyar and an equally matched organising committee chaired by Kalmadi.

After Kalmadi’s run-in wit the former sports minister, the late Sunil Dutt, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by HRD Minister Arjun Singh to be the final arbiter.

Aiyar raised several issues: first, he was astounded by the staggering budget for the games, which rose from Rs 650 crore, cleared by the previous NDA government in 2003, to the estimated Rs 6,600 crore today. He was also stung to discover that the IOA had committed $ 7 million as an endowment to the Commonwealth Federation Consolidated Fund for sports training in all the participating countries.

His disbelief stems from the fact that India would be contributing around $100,000 each to Canada, UK, Australia, among others, to train sportsmen.

The knockout punch, however, was the Rs 30 crore, 10-minute Bollywood extravaganza at the closing ceremony of the Melbourne Games three months ago. The tab was picked up by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, a primary stakeholder in the Delhi Games, but it put the sports minister in a blue mood.

Says Aiyar, ‘‘The current budget for the Games is larger than the plan outlay for each state. It also soars over the annual budget of a crucial sector like panchayati raj (Aiyar holds that portfolio too) of Rs 50 crore. The budget for the last Asian Games, held in 1982, was a modest Rs 55 crore.”

But he said he had resolved the budget issue with Kalmadi, and now it was time to get the sanctions and money from the empowered finance committee.

But Aiyar’s 13-member apex committee, reconstituted a fortnight ago, ‘‘with top-notch professionals to assist me’’ as he says, will have overriding powers to question and guide the preparations for the games.

Aiyar’s committee will coordinate with all stakeholders—Kalmadi’s organising committee, the Delhi Chief Minister who will oversee infrastructure development, and the Lt Governor’s Office under which DDA will build the Games Village and stadia. Besides, it will co-ordinate with Sports Authority of India, which will take care of the players.

At its first meeting on June 2, where all members were present, Kalmadi was absent, saying he was attending on visiting CGF President Mike Fennel. The latter finally gave his approval for Pune to host the Commonwealth Games for Youth in 2008.

Kalmadi says, ‘‘We have no fight with the government, there can be differences, but we would like all the support it can give us. However, the Games was allotted to the IOA, the CGF interacts with us alone, and we are the owners of the event. While the GoM is the main committee, we have no problem in sending any information the apex committee may require. It can take a decision and even guide us.’’

He dismisses allegations of overblown costs: ‘‘The allocation of Rs 900 crore to OC is an operating advance, which has remained since the time we bid. This amount will be returned with extra to the government once the Games are over. The new budget outlay was decided by the other stakeholders for infrastructure development, keeping in mind the fact that we are bidding for the Asian Games 2014 and Olympics 2016.’’

Kalmadi believes Aiyar raised the budget issue as he is answerable to Parliament.

Both Aiyar and Kalamadi vigorously deny there will any overlap of duties and responsibilities and say it will be a smooth road ahead.