The Commonwealth Games village inaugurated last week was to be converted later into a Delhi University (DU) students' hostel, but these posh and luxurious apartments would now be used by the bureaucrats after the Games.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani has brought this information in the public domain in his latest blog.
India bagged the opportunity to host the games in 2003 and the then lieutenant governor of Delhi wrote to the then National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government that the accommodation constructed for the athletes participating in the games should be later used as a hostel for the DU.

"The Vajpayee government readily agreed to the proposal. But later on, after the change of government in New Delhi in 2004, officials interested in securing posh apartments for themselves after the games were over, had different ideas," says Advani.

He produces in support a letter dated September 14, 2004, addressed to DU vice-chancellor prof. Deepak Nayyar by Vijai Kapoor, then no longer the lieutenant governor. The letter reads:

"I had succeeded in obtaining the approval of the then union council of minister that the Games Village to be built near Akshardham for the Commonwealth Games 2010 would, after the Games, be handed over to DU for use as a hostel for its students.  I hear that some persons, obviously not very committed to the cause of our youth, have since been trying to have the decision reversed. 

"With a view to obviating such a reversal I had asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to put it down as a primary parameter in the design competition for the Village that, after the Games, it would be used as a university hostel.  Further developments in the matter you should closely watch.  The clout of the university, and of you personally, will have to be used to ensure that a salutary decision taken by the previous council of ministers is now not reversed."

"Suresh Kalmadi (chairman of Games organising committee) and his associates may be happy, but how would DU students feel about all this? Would they not feel cheated," asks Advani.