CWG purchase: Delhi Police says it did not require equipment

With Home Ministry blaming Delhi Police for excess procurement of Portable Explosive Detectors (PEDs) for Commonwealth Games, the force has said it is "unfair" to hold it responsible for the purchase as it had "clearly" stated that it did not require the equipment.

The Delhi Police has written to the Ministry clarifying that it had informed ECIL, which was procuring items, Steering Committee (CWG) Special Advisor and the Home Ministry that PEDs should be "deleted" from the list of equipment to be procured for the 2010 Games, sources said.

The Home Ministry has told Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is looking into CAG report on irregularities in CWG, that the Delhi Police did not raise issues regarding the purchase of PEDs during the Steering Committee meetings during which decisions were taken.

The PAC had asked the Ministry "why were the equipment procured when the Delhi Police had refused to use them?"

In response to the note sent to the PAC, the sources said, the police has also requested the Ministry to put the facts before the Parliamentary panel.

"The Delhi Police at no stage asked ECIL to procure Portable Explosive detectors, leave alone requisitioning them in excess of our requirement. We managed the CWG arrangements from our existing stock of PEDs and by borrowing them from central para-military corces and states," it said.

In one of the meetings of Steering Committee, it said, the Delhi Police representative had categorically pointed out that from the Bill of Quantities (BoQ), equipment like Hand Held Metal Detectors (HHMDs), Door Frame Metal Detectors (DFMDs) and X-ray Scanners should be deleted as these equipment were being procured by the police itself depending upon the specific requirements and their legacy value.

"Subsequently, when the issue of procurement of Portable Explosive Detectors (PEDs) came up, the police representative in the Steering Committee wrote a letter clearly stating that this item should be deleted from the BoQ of the ECIL...," it said.

The police noted that ECIL dropped the procurement of HHMDS, DFMDs and X-ray Scanners after the force wrote a similar letter to the public sector company.

"Therefore, to put the blame on the Delhi Police for the excessive and unnecessary procurement of PEDs, is misplaced and unfair," it said.

The Home Ministry, in its note, has said that communication was initiated by the police through "isolated" letters to ECIL "outside" the Steering Committee mechanism.

"In case, if the Delhi Police did not want PEDs to be procured through ECIL, the same could have been excluded from the purview of the joint committee meetings which were in any case being convened by Delhi Police themselves," it had said.

However, the police said, whatever security equipment it procured through ECIL, the specifications were given by the force.

"At no stage did the Delhi Police prescribe the specifications for the procurement of PEDs. Therefore, it is not understood under what circumstances and why ECIL made this procurement," it said and claimed that it did not receive any communication from ECIL regarding procurement of PEDs.

The police also pointed out that the force told ECIL that no training need be imparted by it to its personnel as the equipments were being procured by it.

Much after the Games, the police said, ECIL had given few PEDs to the force on loan basis for use during the World Cup Cricket Match held in Delhi and during the event, performance of PEDs was found to be "unsatisfactory" and a report had been sent to the Ministry.

The police also claimed that it borrowed the explosive detectors from para-military forces and state police forces during CWG so that "unnecessary expenditure" of public money di not incurred and optimum utilisation of existing resources was carried out.