Big events like Commonwealth Games impact prices of basic commodities like land, rent and transportation, raising the average cost of living, a study claimed.
The report -- 'Heritage Games' released by Hazards Centre -- looks into the social and the financial cost incurred for organising the Games along with the bearing it will have on the common man's budget after it ends.
"Within the next 25 to 30 years of the 2010 Games each resident of the city will have to pay a debt in form of increased prices of land, basic commodities, petrol," Dunu Roy of Hazards Centre claimed.
He pointed out that the amount costing for the Games was three times that for even the MGNREGA. Talking about the private public partnership, being resorted to for construction activities, he said it was win-win situation for private contractors in every way.
The report also referred to the livelihoods lost with three lakh vendors and one lakh rickshaw-pullers amongst those affected. "There had been gross human right violations of construction workers, beggars being criminalised, trafficking of womenÂ…with 3000 people being evicted and only 20 per cent of them resettled," Miloon Kothari, activist in housing rights, claimed.
There was a disfiguring of the urban fabric with more areas for the rich and less for the poor, he added. "The Prime Minister should call off the Games with the kind of damage being caused," Kothari said adding "This is the most expensive games in the in history of Commonwealth Games even in the developed countries."
"What is being seen in TV and media is only a tip of the iceberg. There is corruption, embezzlement of funds and illegalities by public officials," he said.
