Published: Wednesday, Aug 25, 2010, 2:58 IST
By Harish Gupta | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_government-rides-slow-on-cycles-cyclists-wait-for-practice_1428366
Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s men may get all Commonwealth Games (CWG) venues ready by August 31. But what do you do in a situation like this?
Nearly three years ago, the Cycle Federation of India (CFI) gave a list of equipment required for the cycling event to the sports ministry. On July 17, 2009, a CWG steering committee approved the import of 88 high quality cycles.
The cost of 88 cycles was approved at Rs1.61 crore.
The sports ministry released the funds to the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the sole authority on importing all sports equipment and material. And the wait for the cycles began!
Sports minister MS Gill and CFI chief Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, have been at logger-heads over the import of the cycles. “I wrote letters to everybody in the country. I wrote to PM, I wrote to Gill, I talked to everybody. It’s just 39 days to the games now. When do my boys and girls practise for the cycling event?” Dhindsa told DNA.
When asked why the federation did not import cycles on its own, Dhindsa explained, “We cannot do anything on our own. The sports ministry and SAI only can import equipment.”
Efforts to contact Gill on this issue did not succeed. However, a senior official in the sports ministry explained that the minister did everything possible to ensure faster import. “He released funds to SAI. It was SAI which delayed the import and now wants the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to import the cycles.” IOA got the mandate to import cycles last month.
IOA, however, has made it clear to the sports ministry that it won’t take the blame if cycles could not be imported on time as it was given the responsibility at a short notice.
Dhindsa said no official in IOA was willing to import the cycles without following the procedure laid down by the Central Vigilance Commission, Comptroller and Auditor General and other watchdogs.
“No IOA official is willing to sign the contract without inviting bids. How will we win the tournament? My federation will get a bad name and country’s image will suffer if we fail to perform because of this criminal negligence and attitude,” Dhindsa lamented.
