New Delhi : Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said on Saturday it was not fair for senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar to say that the Commonwealth Games will benefit only select areas of the capital.
Dikshit told reporters here that infrastructure projects and development of better transport facilities have benefited the entire capital, including the areas on its outskirts.
Aiyar had yesterday termed the Commonwealth Games as an "enormous waste of money" and stated that the poor will not have access to India's biggest sporting event.
"Its not that only NDMC areas or other select places will benefit from the Games. It is not a fair comment. What could be done is being done for all areas," she said.
She pointed out that areas like Seelampur and other outer Delhi areas will gain by the infrastructure development. The widening of roads will help them, so will the spread of Delhi Metro which will improve transport facilities," she said.
With just 99 days for the sporting extravaganza to unveil, the Chief Minister said she wanted a unified show of pride from everyone.
"We are just 100 or 99 days away, at this point I would just like all people of Delhi as well as of India to be proud of the Commonwealth Games," she said.
Aiyar had said that the money spent on the Games could have been better utilised for anti-poverty and welfare programmes.
Aiyar's remarks have already come in for flak by Congress, whose spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan virtually snubbed him saying the party supports the Games.
Asked to comment on the fuel price hike, the Chief Minister said it must have been a well thought out and careful decision by the government.
"No government would like to go ahead with such a decision unless it is absolutely necessary," she said after laying the foundation of Jindal Ecopolis, a waste management plant in Okhla. PTI
