Ready for Any Inquiry into CWG: Sports Minister Gill

New Delhi, Aug 10 (IANS) Declaring that he was ready for any inquiry into the preparations for the Commonwealth Games (CWG), Sports Minister M S Gill said Tuesday that tainted officials had been suspended from the Organising Committee under pressure from his ministry.

"We have nothing to hide. We are ready for any kind of inquiry," Gill said in a statement on the Commonwealth Games in the Lok Sabha here Tuesday.

He said he had asked for a probe after the complaint from the Indian High Commission on alleged financial improprieties during the Queen's Baton Relay. "I had asked my ministry to immediately ask the Enforcement Directorate to probe the matter," he said, responding to criticism on the preparations for the Oct 3-14 mega sporting event.

"You know that several officials have been suspended. Why do you think it has happened? It is due to pressure from my ministry," he said.

Gill, who interspersed his speech with colloquial Punjabi, said he was ready to take MPs to visit the completed stadiums. "You will see how lavishly they have been constructed and their grandeur," he said, in an apparent justification for the cost overruns for the stadiums.