Kalmadi rebuts charges, says allegations baseless

New Delhi: Indian Olympic Association President and chairman of the CWG Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi on Saturday refuted allegations of financial irregularities in the organisation of the Commonwealth Games 2010 in New Delhi.

"I have been deeply pained by the baseless allegations of corruption in the CWG," said Kalmadi at a press conference here on Saturday.

Regarding the Central Vigilance Commision's (CVC) report, Kalmadi said that its observation was not directed at the organisers of the Commonwealth Games. "Nothing has been said in the CVC report about us, we have nothing to hide," Kalmadi added.

Earlier, CNN-IBN had shown how the CVC had found serious discrepancies like award of works at higher rates to contractors and poor quality of construction in a dozen Commonwealth Games projects.

Kalmadi criticising media reports over alleged irregularities, said, the reports were telecast without verification.

"We believe in total transparency. We do not have any official communication about the money trail that the news channel has been talking about."

"The fact that the OC has sought a VAT refund of 61,419 pounds from the UK Government shows that we have nothing to hide. The whole story is prejudiced. The ethics of journalism have been flouted as the news channel did not verify the facts from the Organising Committee Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi before airing the allegations," he said.

He said a news TV channel was making a malicious attempt to defame the Organising Committee Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi and him personally. "News TV Channels must show greater responsibility by projecting facts and not figments of their imagination," he said.

Regarding allegations that money was paid to the AM Films, Kalmadi said out of a budget of Rs 13 crore meant for the Queen's Baton Relay (QBR), only Rs 6 crore was spent.

"The budget for the QBR was Rs 13 crores. Only Rs 6 crore has been spent with the permission of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)... neither we have paid 25000 pounds to AM Films every month, nor was any money paid for costume design."

"AM cars and vans we appointed for transport was recommended by the Indian High Commission," he added.