CWG ills embarrass Krishna in Australia

Melbourne, Jan 20: During his Australia tour, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Jan 20 assured the Australian government that he would take up the matter of non-payment of dues to companies for CWG related work after the issue featured in his talks with Kevin Rudd.

According to reports, the Australian companies are preparing a lawsuit against the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee which allegedly owes millions of dollars to the firms.

"It has been brought to my notice and I would go back to India and take it up with the Ministry of Sports," Krishna told a joint press conference.

Krishna could not give a time frame on how soon the matter would be resolved, but said it will be dealt with as soon as possible after his return to India.

Rudd said his government was satisfied with the Indian government's response on the issue which he said was a "complicated one".

"We did discuss these matters. We in Australia are comfortable about Indian government's responses about the process we have in hand which is a complicated one on the domestic matters in India itself. But these matters are well in hand," Rudd told reporters.

Referring to the Australian companies involved in the issue, Rudd said these are private contractual arrangements between individual companies on one hand and a responsibility of the Commonwealth Games authority on the other.

He said the Australian government will work with the companies to assure that proper payments are made to them.

"We will work with them like any other Australian company that faces such an issue," he said.

PTI