Nitin Gadkari slams central govt. over CWG graft charges

Pune, Oct 19 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Nitin Gadkari slammed the Central Government over alleged graft charges in the recently-concluded XIX Commonwealth Games.

Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, Gadkari said: "CWG Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi had a budget of Rs 1,600 crore. Whatever he did is limited to this budget. But what about the Rs 70,000 crore spent on the Games and the role of the central government and the PMO?"

"We have files with stamps of the PMO and the central government (to prove their involvement)," he added.

He further said there were several "misappropriations" which are "unimaginable".

"I am surprised that Rs 918 crore was required for stadiums when there are examples of stadiums have been constructed at minimum cost, like Rs 60 crore in Nagpur," he added.

He also added that out of 700 billion rupees only 480.6 billion rupees were spent on the athletes, however, nobody knows about the rest of money.

"The Congress party needs to ponder over Mani Shankar Aiyar's statements. Out of 700 billion, only 480.6 billion were spent on the athletes. We have also prepared a collection of articles on the Commonwealth Games graft charges which will be presented tomorrow in the parliament," he said.

He assured that the issue would be discussed in the parliament session and BJP workers would protest against the issue across the nation. (ANI)