India 'orders probe' into CW Games corruption

The Indian government has launched an official investigation into allegations of corruption and mismanagement during the preparations for the Delhi Commonwealth Games, reports said yesterday.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) national watchdog ordered the probe into various Games-related projects a day after Thursday's closing ceremony, the Press Trust of India said.
"The audit work for the Commonwealth Games is related to work payments, contracts and leasing of sports equipment among others," the official news agency said.
A high-powered panel of investigators headed by a former chief of the CAG will submit its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by January.
The panel will look into "the organisation and conduct of the Games, fix responsibility for the alleged irregularities and also prepare a dossier on the lessons learnt for future events," The Indian Express newspaper said.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, one of the driving spirits behind the frantic last-minute preparations for the Games, warned those found guilty would be punished.
"The prime minister has said that whatever has gone wrong will be dealt with severely and eventually (those involved in) corruption will not get away," Dikshit told NDTV.
"There is a mystery about tickets. People said stadiums were empty but tickets were not available and so what happened?" she said.
The October 3-14 event involving 71 nations was the costliest Commonwealth Games in history, with an initial organising budget of two billion dollars that was estimated to have swollen to at least three times that size.
The soaring costs and highly publicised construction delays fuelled intense criticism of the Games organising committee, in particular its chairman Suresh Kalmadi.
Under-fire Kalmadi, a leader of India's ruling Congress party, insists that the accusations of poor construction have nothing to do with his committee.
Other reports said federal revenue authorities will separately probe charges of financial wrongdoing while the Central Bureau of Investigation will scrutinise tenders handed out by Kalmadi's team to buy sports equipment.
Delhi Police Commissioner YS Dadwal separately told a news conference he would launch a police investigation once the complaints reach his department.
"The rules are well defined," he said when asked if he would examine cases of alleged wrongdoing.
India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) meanwhile urged the government Saturday to unveil the statutory "terms of reference" of the various investigations that are scheduled to start.
"We want a fast, transparent and impartial enquiry which will make the concerned people accountable and these people should be booked immediately," BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar told AFP.
"They (government) are saying it will take three months for the probe report to be ready and so they should start the process immediately," the spokesman said.
"Let us also see the terms of reference of this enquiry," Javdekar added.
An Indian anti-corruption body in August reported a plethora of problems with construction work, including the use of poor-quality materials and dubious contracts.
In a poll published Saturday in the Times of India, 86 percent of respondents said the corruption charges should be fully investigated and the guilty brought to book.
The Games were seen as a chance to spotlight India's emerging economic superpower status after the success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but a series of high profile public embarrassments took the shine off the event and left India on the defensive.