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[aryan]

NEW DELHI: The Rs 8-crore junket of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) to take part in Beijing Olympics in 2008 had escaped notice of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India during its last audit. It is only now that CAG has raised the red flag about the trip of the 166-member delegation in what was fancily termed as the Beijing Observer Programme.

The August 8-24 trip had several individuals, who had nothing to do with organising the Games.

Neither did the delegates submit any report after they returned home. Officials say even OC had not maintained any documents of the visit, which could be one of the reasons for the oversight of CAG scrutiny earlier.

Athletes Shiny Wilson and Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, cricketer Chetan Chauhan, hockey players Mohamed Aslam Khan and Ajitpal Singh and Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sachin Pilot were some of the high-profile non-OC delegates.

Indian National Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh, Shiromani Akali Dal leader S S Dhindsa, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and BJP leader Vijay Goel were also part for the trip.

In addition, OC had to pick up the tab for cancellation charges for the tickets that were issued to ailing Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, his wife Deepa, son Priyadeep and BJP leader Vinod Khanna and his wife Kavita.

Twenty four delegates were given $1,000 each as allowance during their stay in Beijing. The trip was coordinated by Sangeeta Badhwar, who was a part of the office of former OC chief Suresh Kalmadi. OC's sports department had paid the expenses for the visit.