Commonwealth Games :
Scrambling to ready facilities
India promised to completely clean up the athletes’ housing for the
Commonwealth Games by Wednesday, as authorities scrambled to fix one of
the biggest hurdles facing the beleaguered event just days before it
opens.
The Games were supposed to enhance India’s image as a rising power,
but a last-minute rush to complete work, shoddy construction, dirty
housing and security fears raised governance and accountability issues
in Asia’s third largest economy.
Workers prepare games sites ahead of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth
Games on September 27, 2010 in Delhi, India |
Nearly all the 1,500 athletes who had arrived in Delhi by Monday were
staying at the Games Village, the last major unfinished venue.
Many members of the more than 20 teams in Delhi have praised their
facilities as spacious and spotless, but several other delegations have
run into problems, including the Scotland team, whose chief said
‘standards were just not good enough.’
A snake was found in the room of a South African athlete and about
150 flats are still unhygienic, despite the weekend efforts of an army
of workers who have failed to address an example of the infrastructure
and other problems endemic to India. The opening ceremony for the
two-week sporting event, held every four years for former British
colonies, is on October 3 and the Games Federation said all 71 nations
will participate.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said the Village, where 8,000
athletes will stay, would be ready on Wednesday. Last week, the federal
interior minister had said Saturday.
“We inherited a very difficult situation but its improving almost by
the hour,” she told reporters. “Everybody has been told to work double
time and we will do it.” About 20 athletes, including world champion
sprinter Usain Bolt, have pulled out of the Games for various reasons,
not all of them due to health and security fears. Organizers say the
absence of Bolt, an Olympic gold-medalist, and other high-profile
athletes would not diminish the standards of competitions such as track
and field.
In a boost for the Games, Isle of Man cyclist Mark Cavendish, a Tour
de France stage winner and one of the world’s best sprinters, said he
would compete in the road race.
But the lack of participation from some of the world’s top sports
stars has dulled some of the shine from an event India had hoped to use
to display its growing global economic and political influence,
rivalling neighbour China which put on a spectacular 2008 Beijing Summer
Olympics.
The chaos surrounding the Games has so far been a major embarrassment
for the Government and exposes how far India still needs to go in
executing on the kind of major projects that help make China an economic
powerhouse. Inadequate supply of infrastructure was ranked by the World
Economic Forum as the most problematic factor for doing business in a
fast-modernizing country plagued by frequent power cuts and choked,
potholed roads.
A bridge collapse, a suspected militant attack on two foreign
visitors and an outbreak of dengue fever have compounded worries about
the event and produced a hail of international and domestic criticism of
the Government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Commonwealth Games Chief Executive Mike Hooper blasted the
preparation, while Australia’s Olympic chief said Delhi should never
have been awarded the event.
Last week, Singh’s own spokesman appeared to criticize the
Government’s lack of vision, highlighting fissures within the ruling
Congress party that may complicate policy on issues from economic reform
to a separatist revolt in Kashmir.
The Government had seven years to prepare for the Games, but only
started work in earnest two years ago, a move the official in charge of
the 2004 Athens Olympics said showed they had underestimated the size of
the task. Like Delhi, Athens had faced a frantic rush to complete venues
which drew international censure and there were doubts the Olympics that
year would even happen. The event, however, went ahead without any major
glitches.
The Games were supposed to highlight the modern face of this ancient
land - new highways, a metro extension, sports venues and a $2 billion
international airport.
The National Post |