For all those who had forgotten Ripley's Believe It Or Not, here's how money is being spent for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. A. R. Rahman, revered for his soul - stirring music and recently bestowed the Padma Vibhushan by the government, will be paid close to Rs 5.5 crore by the Games' Organising Committee ( OC) for composing the opening ceremony theme song.Sources confirmed that Rahman would also be associated with promotional events relating to the October 3 - 14 sporting extravaganza to be held in the Capital.
Hectic parleys have been going on between Rahman's agents and OC officials for quite some time now. Sources said the initial demand from the music guru was close to Rs 15 crore.
Considering that all this money is basically what the common man pays as income tax, it was decided that about Rs 5 crore was an agreeable figure.
Not just this, the income tax payable on the sum will be picked up by the OC. The committee will also foot Rahman's "hotel and travel to New Delhi" bills.
All this was recently cleared by the OC's executive committee which met in New Delhi.
Bharat Bala, a man associated with the opening and closing ceremonies as creative director, is getting Rs 25 lakh per month as salary. His taxes are taken care of and Bala also gets paid "ou t- of - pocket allowance". At a time when the cost of hosting the Games has touched the sky, a sum of Rs 200 crore has been budgeted just for the opening and closing ceremonies.
Despite demands that every rupee spent should be accounted for, insiders say people are spending money on events not directly related to the Games.
"How come there is no patriotism involved now? It's baffling how the OC is going to pay Rs 5 crore to Rahman," a committee insider said.
Another supported hiring the services of Rahman.
"He is such a well - known figure and has won all kinds of international awards. What is wrong if he is being paid for it," the insider said.
But the point is that when athletes in India are struggling to get money and facilities to hire the best coaches in the business, funds being wasted on the cultural extravaganza are hard to justify.
According to the budget provided by the government for the Games, ministries and departments get Rs 8,343 crore and the Delhi government Rs 2,800 crore.
There are other expenditures which seem high. For the conduct of the Games, the OC gets Rs 1,620 crore. For the "Overlays", it gets Rs 687 crore.
Another item which catches the eye on the official website is the expenditure of Rs 87.25 crore on timing scoring result ( TSR) and Games time sports equipment.
With the OC now coming under RTI purvey, questions are bound to be asked on how the taxpayers' money is going to be spent.
