27/09/2010
Officials unwilling to learn lessons. Hygiene remains a big concern.
Yes. You got it right. Despite repeated warnings by contingents, hygiene standards are only worsening at the CWG. These pictures are the latest from the CWG and sorry folks. It is not just 'unlivable' but even 'unwatchable.'
Earlier, Team Scotland boss Jon Doig criticised the Delhi Commonwealth Games organisers, saying the athletes have been let down by them as the Village is not upto the mark and there are things yet to be fixed.
About 80 members of the Scottish team and 50 of the Wales contingent have moved into the Village even as organisers sprint against time to finish up the cleaning up of the residential complex.
Mr. Doig said although things are changing but it was still "just not good enough for people who have had seven years to prepare".
"We have been working really hard on our accommodation and the big challenge is to ensure that the rest of the accommodation is the same level for the other 71 Commonwealth Games associations.
"We just happened to arrive early, identify the problems and started working very hard to try to address them.
"Now we've got people in it's really starting to test the system and there are a few things that need to be fixed on an ongoing basis," Chef de mission of the Scotland Team, Mr. Doig was quoted as saying by the BBC. Mr. Doig said since his colleagues arrived here in the middle of September, "quite a lot of change" happened but it is still not good enough.
"We've had a number of our colleagues move in over the last couple of days and have found that their apartments are a long way from being ready for our athletes.
"A lot of them have arrived in Delhi and have had to be held in hotels until they can be brought up to standard.
"It's just not good enough for people who have had seven years to prepare for the Games," he said.
Members of Scotland team who arrived in Delhi include archery, lawn bowls, shooting, tennis and weightlifting teams, even as tennis star Elena Baltacha decided to pull out citing health hazards yesterday.
Their rugby players, boxers and wrestlers are due to head out on Tuesday.
Many Commonwealth countries criticised the preparations of the Games, which have been plagued by construction delays, corruption charges, a shooting incident, a foot over -- bridge collapse and a dengue outbreak.
These nations have also criticised the Village, terming it as "filthy and unliveable", which prompted a massive cleaning drive at the residential complex by the organisers.
Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit yesterday said that it would not be finished by Wednesday.
Urgent: Snake charmers wanted for CWG
Monday morning blues for CWG organising committee. after dogs, the new problem. a south african envoy claims he has seen a snake in his apartment in the games village. A new headache for the CWG now and maybe they need to urgently hire snake charmers too
Despite frantic efforts by the Commonwealth Games organisers to improve faciliities at the Games Village, stray dogs, last minute work and the discovery of a snake in one of the aprartments Sunday drew howls of protests from the visiting teams.
Some 60 members of the Scotland team and a 50-strong Welsh contingent finally moved into the Games Village, but expressed displeasure at the unfinished facilities.
Scotland's chef de mission Jon Doig, who had arrived here last week, said things should have turned out better as India had seven years to prepare for the Oct 3-14 event.
"We had arrived here earlier and had it not been the case, our athletes would have had a tough time in the Games Village. Since we arrived here earlier, we could identify the problems at the right time. But there are still a few things that are needed to be fixed," he said.
The Scottish advance team has been in the forefront in criticising the unhygienic conditions at the Village earlier this week.
Another team official said stray dogs continue to pose a danger to the athletes in the Village.
"We have never seen stray dogs in any other Games Village. This is very strange for us and it poses a threat for the athletes as well," the official said.
A top South African diplomat warned his country's athletes would not put up in the village after a snake was discovered in one of the rooms reserved for them.
An infuriated South African High Commissioner Harris Mbulelo Mejeke said the athletes will not stay in the Village until everything is put in place.
"A snake can be a threat to the lives of our athletes. Very disappointing. Basically, the basement was full of water and the staircase was also damp. If snakes are found we can't ask our athletes to stay in such dangerous situations," Mejeke told reporters.
In fact, diplomats of Africa's Commonwealth nations Sunday said there was some improvement in the facilities for their players in the Village, but they will take a final decision on their teams' full-strength arrival only after another inspection Monday evening.
Diplomats from all the participating Commonwealth nations were Saturday taken for a visit to the Games Village, but the African countries had complained that accommodation for their players was not clean and up to par, as compared to that of other major nations.
The African diplomats had then gone on another visit to see the living areas for their teams Sunday evening.
Even so, Trinidad and Tobago officials praised the facilities, but said their team would stay in hotels for the time being as a lot of finishing work remained.
"The facilities are excellent, but there is still a lot of work to do. That is the reason why we have opted to stay in hotels rather than the Village. This is very much similar to a big Indian wedding. But what bothers us are the mosquitoes. There is a fear of dengue," said John Melow, a team official.
Nearly 1,100 athletes and team officials, from Norfolk Islands, Canada, Kenya, Nigeria, Scotland, Canada, Tanzania, Lesotho, Rwanda, Wales, England, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Bermuda, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the British Virgin Islands arrived here Sunday.
CWG delegates troop in, Hooper clarifies anti-government remarks
New Delhi: On a day when the biggest group of foreign athletes and officials arrived here on Sunday for the Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper criticised the Indian government for the delay in infrastructure projects - only to take back his words later.
The Games Village continued to haunt the organisers. Now, a snake was found in an apartment alloted to South Africa. Some 60 members of the Scottish team and 50 from the Welsh contingent moved into the Village, but said there are still a few things to be taken care of.
There was another hiccup on the organisational front as the security agencies could not complete the lockdown of all the venues and the Village with work still in progress at some of the sites.
There were two more pull outs with Australian Cyclist Travis Meyer and table tennis player Stephanie Sang withdrawing, citing security and health concerns.
On the brighter side, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the Rs.700 million ($15 million) sports injuries centre in the Safdarjung Hospital which will cater to sportspersons during the Games, and Swimmers Ashley Callus of Australia and England's Jenna Randall said they will definitely travel to New Delhi and the problems related to the Games have not had a negative impact on them.
The biggest delegations that arrived were from Kenya (112), Nigeria (69) and Scotland (60). The other arrivals were from countries like Canada, Tanzania, Lesotho, Norfolk Island, Rwanda, Wales, England, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Bermuda, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the British Virgin Islands, a press statement from the Organising Committee said.
The blame game continued with Hooper slamming the Indian government for the delay in readying the Games infrastructure and that CGF should not share the responsibility.
Hooper, however, later retracted his statement given to TVNZ and thanked the Indian government for helping the organisers.
"I thank the Indian government for the help. I thank the Indian people for the massive investment they have made," Hopper clarified after his remarks on TVNZ that CGF should not share the responsibility for the Games mess.
"It is not a matter of a blame game. There are significant changes in the Games Village. I never gave a clean chit to the Village and I stand by that. The facilities in the international zone are excellent," said Hooper, who praised the Village during its soft launch Sep 16.
Hooper said there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. "We see full co-operation from the government."
Earlier, Hooper, who has been staying in the Indian capital for three years to oversee the Games preparations, said CGF cannot be blamed for the present state of affairs.
Hooper's statement is in sharp contrast to the remarks of CGF president Michael Fennell, who a day before said they share collective blame for the lapses.
"We're at the hands and the mercy of, effectively, the government of India, the Delhi government, the agencies responsible for delivery of the venues. They consistently failed to meet deadlines," TVNZ quoted Hooper.
The 35-bed sports injuries centre has three modular operation theatres with pre-operative and post-operative rooms and a two-bed ICU in the post-operative room.
High-end equipment like MRI, CT scan, bone densitometry, digital X-ray and colour doppler and laboratory services have been outsourced on a revenue sharing basis in the public-private-partnership mode.
The delay in the security lockdown of the venues and Village, which was to be completed Saturday midnight, continued.
"Work is still on at the Games main venue Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the Games Village and some other venues. We have been told that the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will be handed over to us by Sunday night and the Games Village by Monday," a Delhi Police officer said.
Home Minister P.Chidambaram had Sep 23 asked the Games Organising Committee to complete all work at venues by Friday night and hand them over to the Delhi Police for the lockdown.
The police, however, operationalised exclusive lanes on important roads Sunday to facilitate Games-related traffic.
Commenting on the withdrawal of the Australian athletes, the country's Commonwealth Games chief Perry Crosswhite said he was disappointed that it had happened just a week from the start of the event but respected the athletes' decisions.
"I am disappointed on the basis that these Games will be a good experience particularly for all the athletes who come to it and of course we wouldn't be here if we didn't think the security was not being organised well and at the level it should be," Crosswhite said.
Australia's athletes will begin arriving in Delhi from Monday morning.
Some 7,000 participants and officials from 71 teams are expected to attend the Commonwealth Games, India's biggest sporting event since the 1982 Asian Games.
Indian shooters' practice delayed
New Delhi: Indian shooters had to delay their practice on Sunday as their guns and ammunition could not reach the Karni Singh Shooting Range due to lack of co-ordination among the Organising Committee officials.
There was utter chaos at the airport Saturday night when 18 Indian shooters, comprising the rifle and pistol shooters, arrived and officials from the Organising Committee were in fix on how to transport the guns and the ammunition.
National coach Sunny Thomas told IANS that the team was made to wait at the airport for nearly two hours and there was lack of co-ordination among the officials.
"The rule is that the guns and the ammunition would be escorted directly to the range. But due to lack of co-ordination the shooters themselves wanted to take their guns and ammunition to the range and by the time they came to the Games Village, it was 3 a.m. in the morning. So we had to postpone our practice that was scheduled for Sunday morning to the afternoon," said Thomas.
Source: IANS
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