New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had shot off an angry letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh last year over the Commonwealth Games scam. NDTV has access to the letter, dated March 28, 2011, in which Ms Dikshit makes an angry defence in the case, slamming the report of the Shunglu Committee which probed alleged irregularities in organising the event.
"Committee report has caused damage to the government and my image," said Ms Dikshit. She also wrote that the "Committee failed to appreciate the need for consultations", and that
"Direct insinuations were deliberate, mischievous and defamatory."
The committee's observations had indicted the Dikshit Government for cost and time overruns in projects related to the Games. It had said that Ms Dikshit had failed in her supervisory role and that she had centralised the procedures which led to delays.
In her letter to Dr Singh, the Delhi chief minister also seems to be blaming the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram for lack of coordination that led to delays in completing the projects and hence, inflating costs.
"Project implementing ministries complained of delays in getting financial clearances," states the letter, written soon after the Shunglu Committee report was made public.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had appointed a committee headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) VK Shunglu on October 25, 2010, soon after the completion of the mega sports event, to probe allegations of corruption, misappropriation of funds, irregularities and weaknesses in management of the Games.
The Commonwealth Games scam has also put Sheila Dikshit's government in the dock with a court in Delhi asking the police earlier this month why it had not filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the chief minister. The court was hearing a complaint filed by RTI activist Vivek Garg, which blames the chief minister for inflating costs and cites several letters written by her to the Prime Minister as evidence.
Delhi Police informed the court on Monday that the complaint had been forwarded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) since it was investigating cases related to the event. The next hearing is on February 23.
The Commonwealth Games were seeped in controversy and the event made international headlines for poor organisation and project delays. Charges of corruption in the award of contracts and purchase of equipment led to the arrest of CWG Organising Committee head Suresh Kalmadi and his top aides.