CWG mess: I had warned Chidambaram, says Aiyar

Former sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar blamed former finance minister P Chidambaram for not taking cognizance of his letters that warned about alleged embezzlement of funds earmarked for the Commonwealth Games

Former sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar blamed former finance minister P Chidambaram for not taking cognizance of his letters that warned about alleged embezzlement of funds earmarked for the Commonwealth Games.

Aiyar said that he wrote several letters to Chidambaram, who is now the home minister, but never got any acknowledgement.

Aiyar told CNN-IBN: "After one meeting of the group of ministers, where my insistence on observing the general financial rules (GFR) was overruled by the finance minister himself, I did write to Chidambaram.

"In that letter, I did say that instead of the sports ministry being asked to release these grants in violation of the GFR to Suresh Kalmadi-led Organising Committee, why not the finance ministry itself does it?" he said. "And to the best of my memory, I may be wrong here, that letter was neither acknowledged nor acted upon," he said.

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