Invitation list for CWG opening ceremony eludes city legislators and councillors
Invitation list for CWG opening ceremony eludes city legislators and councillors
The latest entrants to the crowd booing the Commonwealth Games are the Delhi MLAs and Councillors, as the Organising Committee has ignored both of them from invitations to the opening and closing ceremonies of the mega sporting event.
Ready or not? The opening and closing ceremonies would be held at
the Nehru stadium (above)
They will have to buy the tickets and join the crowd because no complimentary passes would be provided to them. Member of Parliaments have also registered their protest with the OC, as they would not be given passes for family and friends. A senior official associated with the OC confirmed that the MLAs and corporators would not be given any complimentary passes. Apart form MPs there would be invites for Supreme Court Judges and Secretaries of central government ministries.
The protocol team of the Organising Committee is busy in sending out invitation cards and getting together the list of invitees accredited.
The OC has a long list of MPs who have been writing tirelessly, to make available them invites in which they wanted to include their wards, and friends. "Around 10 percent of the current MPs have written to OC to provide them passes," the OC official said.
And it seems, the MLAs and councilors knew that it was coming. The MLAs had recently taken up the matter in Delhi assembly while councilors have also been talking about it for long. "Commonwealth Games are being projected as pride of nation, but at the same time they should keep in mind Delhi is hosting it.u00a0
It is unfortunate that those who have been responsible for organising this are being left out," said senior BJP leader and MLA Jagdish Mukhi. Congress MLA and city Youth Congress leader Anil Chaudhary joined issue with Mukhi. "We are public representatives. It is not in good taste that those who are representing the city are not being sent the invites. They should reconsider their decision," he said.u00a0u00a0u00a0
Congress Councillor, Khavinder Singhu00a0 said, " We get invites for August 15 function too. How can they ignore us for an event like CWG which is being touted as a national festival," he said.
"The invitees would also include chief ministers and governors from other states. However, a few exceptions can be made," said the official.
THE LIST
The opening and closing ceremony will have 7,500 VVIP guests. Sources said invitations have been sent out to Robert and Priyanka Vadera. There are about 59,000 seats in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Of these, only about 37,000 are actually available for spectators as, besides Indian VIPs, seats have also been reserved for foreign delegates and others. Moreover, there are over 1,000 foreign invites - 16 delegates will be received from each of the 71 countries. There will also be around 2,000 'seat kills', those rendered useless due to presence of cameras or other equipment.
VIJENDER DISAPPOINTED
Olympic bronze winner Vijender Singh kicked up a storm on Tuesday by questioning the trials conducted to choose the boxers for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
Vijender said he was unhappy with the way selection trials for the two events were conducted as some "deserving" boxers have been left out.
Vijender said among those who were not picked despite a fine show in the trials include his cousin Balwinder Beniwal (64kg), a youth Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, and reigning national champion Sunil Kumar (49kg), who also happens to be a former Commonwealth champion.
ATTENTION MOTION
Malaysia and Australia have issued advisory against travel to Delhi for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) due to the dengue scare. According to reports, Indian embassies report that athletes' families are unwilling to travel to India for the CWG because of the outbreak.u00a0 With the Games construction work in full swing around the city, the Health Ministry is keeping its fingers crossed - hoping against hope that the dengue outbreak does not add to the Indian Government's embarrassment.u00a0 The Ministry is planning to write to its missions abroad asking them to reassure tourists that Delhi is a safe destination, government sources said.
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