New Delhi, Aug 6 (IANS) After coming under fire from several quarters over allegations of corruption, the upcoming Commonwealth Games and its organisers came in for more criticism — this time in a book called ‘It’s Common v/s Wealth – Exposing Commonwealth Games 2010’ launched here Friday.
The book by Kapil Mishra, a Greenpeace activist, was released by eminent journalist Kuldeep Nayar at the Gandhi Peace Foundation. And social activists, politicians and journalists present on the occasion too joined in the list of complaints against the mega sporting event, calling it a waste of public money.
Nayar said: ‘Delhi should wake up and save itself from the adversities that are going in the city in the name of Commonwealth Games. A fine example of this is the building of concrete structures on the fertile bank of Yamuna, which was a disastrous idea.’
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former sports minister Vijay Goel said: ‘This is Commonwealth loot 2010. The budget has increased manifold and there is rampant corruption. As far as the advertising and the promotion of the games are concerned, the government only has dug up roads and half-done stadiums to show.’
Many of those who spoke at the book launch argued that there was no point in developing an already developed city like Delhi and instead a rural or backward area should have been chosen as the venue for the games.
