Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Thursday briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the state of preparations for the Commonwealth Games due in about three months from now.
“I updated the Prime Minister about the preparations for the Commonwealth Games,” Ms. Dikshit said. During her meeting with the Prime Minister earlier in the day, the Chief Minister also informed him about some of the difficulties that were coming in the way of the preparations for the international sporting event.
The meeting assumes significance as it comes just a day after the Chief Minister allocated different responsibilities to all her Ministers for the Games.
On Wednesday, she had divided the work of supervision and control of various Games related projects among her Cabinet colleagues to ensure their timely completion and proper implementation.
Supervision divided
At the informal Cabinet meeting, it was decided that Finance Minister A.K. Walia will look after all the projects related to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and would also along with Delhi Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely jointly supervise all the projects in East Delhi. Mr. Lovely has also been asked to look after all the transport-related projects, particularly construction of bus shelters.
The Chief Minister is learnt to have expressed her unhappiness with the arrangements in the field of health. While Health Minister Kiran Walia has been told to look after the projects of her department, she has also been given additional responsibility of all the Games projects in South Delhi.
Ms. Dikshit was also not happy with the way the Barapulla drain and Salimgarh road projects have progressed and asked the Delhi Development and PWD Minister Rajkumar Chauhan to look into them. She also told him to supervise the street beautification and landscaping works closely.
Finally, while Social Welfare Minister Mangat Ram Singhal has been given charge of projects in North Delhi and Delhi University, Industries Minister Haroon Yusuf has been given charge of all projects around Red Fort and in the Walled City area.
The Ministers were specifically told to see to it that all the construction material and garbage was cleared from the project sites. They were also told to present a weekly status report on the projects handed over to them.
