India's Commonwealth Games Mess

[S_O_C_O_M]

India's Commonwealth Games Mess​

By Sumon K. Chakrabarti / New Delhi Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010

Indian laborers work at one of the Commonwealth Games venues. Corruption allegations and construction delays have dogged the games, which will take place Oct. 3-14, 2010, in New Delhi.


The biggest international sporting spectacle ever to head for India is just five weeks away — and the Commonwealth Games are still mired in controversy, inefficiency, bureaucratic infighting and delays. Even the anthem — composed by double Oscar winner A.R. Rahman of "Jai Ho" fame — is late. At a press conference on Aug. 16 meant to unveil the song, Rahman sang one line and then said the song wasn't quite ready. "I still have to tweak some lyrics and do much more modification with the sound elements," he explained. A source in India's Sport Ministry, though, said the delay was due to a "lack of agreement over which minister should actually be given the honors" of introducing the song.

The games have much more serious problems. India has already spent at least $4.6 billion — nine times more than its December 2003 estimate of $500 million — to upgrade stadiums, refurbish roads and build power and water utilities. It spent another $2.7 billion on a new airport terminal. But the 12-day-long event, which will see athletes competing from the former British Commonwealth, has already been marred by allegations of corruption even before its start in New Delhi on Oct. 3.
(See pictures of India's turning points.)

The Indian government is in full damage-control mode. Trying to salvage the event, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has formed a special group of ministers and assigned 10 senior bureaucrats to oversee the completion of various unfinished games projects. Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Congress Party, said that those guilty of corruption would not be spared after the mega sports event is over. "The prestige of the nation is involved," she said. Two games officials have already stepped down. The joint director general of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee, T.S. Darbari, was fired after press allegations of financial irregularity based on leaks from the Sports Ministry. Darbari refused comment but said, "Investigations will tell [the truth]. I was taken to task without any trial or any hearing." The other official, Anil Khanna, the treasurer of the committee, resigned after reports that his son's company was granted a contract for laying 14 synthetic tennis courts. Khanna said he stepped down because the charges hurt him and his family but that "I have nothing to hide. I was not a part of the Commonwealth Games 2010 Organizing Committee when the tender was passed."

The swirl of public outrage started at the end of July with a report by India's top anticorruption watchdog. It concluded that the Commonwealth Games' infrastructure was hazardous to both athletes and spectators because of "large-scale corruption, usage of substandard material and repeated delays." The news has only gotten worse, with fresh reports of questionable dealings surfacing almost daily in the media. The games are now being blamed for everything from an outbreak of dengue fever to flooded streets.
(See India's health care crisis.)

Mother Nature has, indeed, played a part. New Delhi's monsoon usually hits in late July, which would have given games organizers a few weeks after the rains had subsided to finish construction. Instead, this year's late monsoon has kept the city a waterlogged mess through August. Roads in the Indian capital are collapsing, including some of the new ones laid out for the games. "Already more than 20 roads have caved in," says Ajay Chadha, special commissioner of police for traffic. "The number of cases of road collapse have increased manifold this year. And some roads which have no history of such incidents have also caved in after upgradation work was done on them for the Commonwealth Games."
(See what New Delhi faces as it tries to get ready for the Commonwealth Games.)

Debris from the construction work has also choked New Delhi's main storm-water drains, which carry excess rainwater into the Yamuna River. For all the new bike lanes, bus stations and high-tech toilets that they have built, the planners apparently never intended to install a new drainage system or to upgrade the old one. Arti Mehra, the former mayor of New Delhi and a leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, puts the blame squarely on the office of the Prime Minister and the ruling Congress Party. "For eight years, the Congress government did nothing — they slept over the project works," she said.

Meanwhile, all the rainwater pooling in open construction sites is an ideal breeding site for mosquitoes, and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (the same agency responsible for most of the construction) blames that situation for this year's severe outbreak of dengue, a mosquito-borne disease. This year, there have been nearly 400 confirmed cases of dengue (local medical experts say the number is likely several times that), including one Malaysian athlete who went to New Delhi for the Asian All-Star Athletic Meet, a test event for the Commonwealth Games held at the flagship Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium July 29-30. "Delhi is already dug up because of the CWG [Commonwealth Games] and it is also raining very heavily," says India's Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. "Since water remains stored in many places, it becomes a breeding place for mosquitoes, which are contributing to diseases." Officials say a mosquito-eradication program is in place but nothing is yet evident on the ground.

Then there are the cost overruns. The $7.5 billion price tag for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is already the highest ever for the event (the 2006 games held in Melbourne may have cost close to $1 billion). But the costs include, according to documents provided to investigators by the organizing committee, $89 rolls of toilet paper, $61 soap dispensers, $125 first-aid kits and treadmills rented for 45 days at a cost of $23,080 each. And there is the problem of contracts. According to leaked Sports Ministry documents, $429,000 was paid to the British company AM Films to supply transport and portable toilets last October for the start of the traditional kickoff of the games, the Queen's Baton Relay at Buckingham Palace. There was, however, no formal contract with AM Films. Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organizing committee, admitted at a press conference that there had been no time to sign a contract for the relay and that several other projects had been approved in a similar manner without contracts.

In New Delhi, Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Mike Fennell and CEO Mike Hooper have had to answer questions from the Indian media about an interim report from India's Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which raised questions about how consulting contracts, worth millions of dollars, were awarded. A final report will be presented in Parliament next March. According to the interim report, the organizing committee awarded contracts to sports marketing firms to help find sponsors for the games based solely on the suggestions of three people: Fennell, Hooper and Kalmadi. In one case, according to the CAG, a $4.7 million consultancy contract was awarded to Ernst & Young, despite a lower bid from Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Hooper held an impromptu press conference outside the organizing committee's headquarters to deny any wrongdoing. "The CGF makes appropriate recommendations based on recommendations," he said. Fennell said the CGF has left it to the Indian authorities to investigate the charges of financial irregularities that have rocked the organizing committee. "There has been reporting of corruption. It has been of great concern for CGF," Fennell said.

Kalmadi, who is also a member of Parliament from the ruling Congress Party, remains defiant. "This is a smear campaign to bring disrepute to the games," he told TIME. He insisted that all the games contracts were awarded properly but refused to comment on any of the specific allegations until the end of the event on Oct. 14. "I am ready to face any inquiry after the games," he said.

Fennell, who wrapped up a two-day inspection of the venues in New Delhi last week, says his main concern is hygiene in the athletes' village. "Buildings alone don't make the village; it's the management and the food which will ensure that the village is what we want it to be," he told the press on Aug. 12. "We will have to make sure that the food served is of the highest standard because the athletes would have to be given the best standard of hygiene." But, he said, there is also "a need to address the roads, the landscape and the cleaning of the village. These need to be addressed with urgency. We don't have much time left."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2013182,00.html

 

[Coltsfan]

I was in Delhi, when India hosted 1982 asian games........ that one event changed the infrastructure of city beyond imagination...

hopefully, the CWG 2010 does it again for Delhi...... honestly I don't care for the games per se....... (I dont think anyone really does)..... but if it gives us an excuse for spend some $on roads, flyovers, and metro stations........ lets go for it....

 

[Masterchief]

dear socom, the mess will be cleared by september 10, sheila dixit announced yesterday that the games are back on track, the construction work is over and only finishing touches are required, the debris will be cleared by sept10 and the PM himself is supervising the work now.

 

[Gene]

don't worry about the games.it will one of the finest commonwealth games ever..
it is just the indian way of organising....

 

[prototype]

@mods

can u merge all of the 5000 delhi commonwealth bashing threads into 1,so that we can have a more effective bashing

 

[Omar1984]

2 Teams Delay Leaving for Troubled Games in India

India's Commonwealth Games woes raise concern about major sports events in developing nations
​

The idea sounded good: Put international sports festivals like the Commonwealth Games in countries such as India to broaden the stage for international competitions and encourage economic development.

Indian laborers work outside Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, the main venue for the Commonwealth Games,in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010. The Commonwealth Games chief rushed to New Delhi seeking emergency talks with the prime minister over India's chaotic preparations, as two world champion competitors withdrew and England warned that problems with the athletes' village have left the sporting event on a "knife-edge."( (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
(AP)



It had been done before, with the Olympics in China two years ago and with regional events like the Pan American Games in South America and Cuba in the 1980s and '90s.

This time, it is backfiring. Instead of showing the world that it is a modern, global power, India is being castigated for its lack of preparation.

With barely a week to go before the games begin, frantic last-minute preparations are verging on chaos, international sports officials are furious and the games have become an international embarrassment that could threaten plans for major sporting events in other developing nations.

Scotland and Canada said Wednesday they would delay their departures to New Delhi because of the unfinished athletes' village. Meanwhile, an official with the New Zealand swimming team said international swimming federations could quickly stage an alternative meet if the games were canceled.

The Times of India summed it up with a front-page headline: "C'wealth Games India's Shame."

"Irretrievable damage has been done to the country's reputation," said Norris Pritam, an Indian journalist who has covered many Olympics and Asian Games. "India can still pull it off, but I was more hopeful a few weeks ago."

Commonwealth Games Federation President Mike Fennell headed to New Delhi, seeking emergency talks with the prime minister to discuss the situation, the games' chief executive, Mike Hooper, said Wednesday.

Games organizers have faced a slew of troubles recently, including heavy rains, a citywide outbreak of dengue fever, fears over security after the shooting of two tourists near one of the city's top attractions, and the collapse of a pedestrian bridge at the main stadium, injuring 27 construction workers, five critically.

The athletes' village — a symbolic heart of the games — was still unfinished Wednesday, the eve of its scheduled opening. The home for more than 7,000 athletes and officials from 71 countries and territories has been called "unfit for human habitation."

Andrew Foster, head of Commonwealth Games England, said Wednesday "the next 24 to 48 hours is the critical time" to determine if the standards of the athletes' village can be raised.

So far, four athletes — including three world champions — have said they won't attend because of health or safety concerns.

Indian government officials insisted they would prove the critics wrong.

Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, told the BBC that the games will be "one of the most successful that the Commonwealth has undertaken." He blamed "the prolonged monsoon" for the problems.

New Delhi, chosen over the Canadian city of Hamilton, Ontario, as host, has had seven years to prepare, though very little was done until 2008. Armies of workers — often rural villagers making just a few dollars a day — have been deployed across the city in recent weeks to get it ready.

Indian officials have long dismissed international worries over the slow preparations, even though they were more than a year behind schedule. At one point, the sports minister joked that the games were like a stereotypical big chaotic Indian wedding — and that after lots of last-minute efforts everything would turn out fine.

But in recent weeks, as the many problems became more apparent, the Indian media have turned increasingly critical, questioning why the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hadn't done more to reign in mismanagement.

Taking the event to India carried inherent risks.

The trend in recent years among major international sports bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee, is for what organizers call "universality" — spreading major competitions around the world as much as possible, including to developing nations where such events have rarely been held.

Last year, the IOC awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro, taking the games to South America for the first time. Africa is now the only continent that hasn't had an Olympics. But South Africa's triumphant hosting of this year's World Cup despite widespread concerns has made it a strong contender for the 2020 Olympics.

"It's part of a desire to keep expanding the range of countries that can host these events," senior Canadian IOC member Dick Pound told The Associated Press. "You know when you do that the risks are much higher. You just hope the sense of national importance for the host country will allow it to focus on what resources are required and get it done. That said, the risks remain."

So what happened in India?

There's no simple answer. Certainly some blame lies with the central government, which only recently began keeping a close watch on preparations. The Indian media is also rife with allegations of widespread corruption.

And some is pure bad luck: New Delhi has had its heaviest monsoons in decades this year.

"There's an awful lot of talent in India," Pound said. "There's no inherent reason why they could not make a national effort to pull it together better than they have — or seem to have."

He also noted that the Commonwealth, unlike the IOC, is at heart a political grouping, so there is pressure to hold some games away from the traditional hosts of Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

"You can't have the same old four or five white countries doing these games all the time," he said.

The IOC and FIFA both have committees which carry out regular and rigorous inspections of preparations for the Olympics and World Cup, something which helps avoid the type of chaos engulfing the games in India.

The IOC had to put heavy pressure on Athens ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics after chronic construction delays and political wrangling put those games at risk.

"We saw what happened in Athens," Pound said. "There's a limit to what you can do if you don't have the national will or there's a domestic conflict between different groups or political parties."

Pound said Kingston, Jamaica, proved when it hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1966 that developing countries can pull it off with the necessary zeal.

The message to India and others, he said, is: "If we're going to do this and occupy a share of the world's stage, we've got to do it properly. If we're not committed to it, we shouldn't do it."

India's troubles have severely dented its hopes of bidding for the 2020 or 2024 Olympics.

"I'm sure it's put that back by at least a decade," Pound said.

The economic impact of staging major global sports events can weigh heavily on host cities and countries.

The Indian government initially pegged the cost of the Commonwealth Games at less than $100 million in 2003, but the figure has skyrocketed, with estimates ranging from $3 billion to more than $10 billion.

Unlike the Olympics or World Cup, the Commonwealth Games do not attract major international sponsors or TV rights fees.

Although China was able to use the Beijing Olympics to highlight how far it has come after decades of isolation, India is falling behind in that quest.

"When you look at China's very monolithic, dictatorial approach, they have a machine where they can make things happen in a very deterministic manner, whereas India is a colorful and chaotic democracy and sometimes things don't quite go as planned," said Gunjan Bagla, founder of Amritt, Inc., a California consulting firm that helps Western companies do business in Asia.

But the games remain deeply important to India's national pride, making it highly unlikely the government will call them off.

"We're absolutely prepared," Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, who is in charge of monitoring the readiness for Singh, told CNN-IBN television Wednesday.

———

Sullivan reported from New Delhi, Wilson from London. Associated Press writers Ravi Nessman and C. Rajshekhar Rao in New Delhi and Chris Lehourites in London contributed to this report.

 

[Omar1984]

BJP slams govt over CWG controversies
​

New Delhi, Sept 22 (IBNS): As serious doubts are being raised on India’s capability to host a successful Commonwealth Games (CWG) from early next month, the country’s principle Opposition party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Wednesday slammed the government for the current state-of-affairs in the preparations for the Games.

Alleging that the government is unconcerned about the situation, BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said, “National prestige is involved but the government is unmoved.”

He pointed that as many as 26 corruption cases are being probed.

The CWG is being plagued by a host of controversies, ranging from corruption charges to incomplete or sub-standard work.

A day after a footbridge collapsed outside the main CWG venue, the false ceiling of the weightlifting venue caved in on Wednesday.

Several leading athletes have already pulled out of the Games, though the organizers are putting up a brave front and claiming that the Games will be on time and in a grand manner.

 

[Omar1984]

Comm Games teams await India's response
​

The Indian government is under pressure on Friday to allay widespread criticism over the Delhi Commonwealth Games as more athletes pull out and team leaders delay arrivals.

Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Mike Fennell arrived in New Delhi late on Thursday for crisis talks with senior government officials.

He has requested a meeting with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about preparations for the Games, which are due to open in just nine days.

Mr Singh met on Thursday night with his sports minister and Delhi government officials but did not reveal the outcome of their discussions, leaving the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and India's Organising Committee (OC) to respond to the widespread concern and criticism.

England has decided to send its team following reassurances that the athletes' village will be up to scratch.

But New Zealand is expected to make a final decision on whether to send its team sometime on Friday.

NZ team manager Dave Currie said the decision would depend on India's ability over the next 24 hours to ensure "the completion of all the things that need to be completed".

The first of more than 7000 athletes and team officials began arriving at the athletes village this week to find deplorable conditions.

Photos of some of the living quarters show f!lthy bathrooms, muddy dog prints on mattresses and reports of human faeces on the floors.

Team officials from New Zealand, Canada, Wales, Scotland and South Africa delayed their teams' scheduled arrivals as a result.

On Thursday, some softened their stance, saying massive efforts to clean up the village have improved conditions.

Perry Crosswhite, Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA) chief executive, has acknowledged substandard conditions in the village but remains positive they will be rectified.

And he has reassured Australian athletes that their village facilities will be acceptable.

OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi said late on Thursday that he was confident none of the 71 national teams will pull out.

"We believe there will be no serious complaints anymore," Kalmadi said in a statement.

"And we believe that no teams will pull out of the Games."

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has been put in charge of the operation to clean up the village and complete repairs.

CGF chief executive Mike Hooper said the efforts have made a difference to the village but more work is needed before athletes begin arriving in large numbers on the weekend.

At least eight athletes have withdrawn from the competition.

Four British gold medal cyclists were the latest athletes to pull out of the Games.

Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift cited health concerns for opting out of the Games.

World champion discus thrower Dani Samuels cited security and health concerns for her withdrawal from the Games earlier this week but remains the only Australian to pull out for those reasons so far.

Security for the Games is also a top concern and some private security firms have questioned India's preparations and ability to prevent a terrorist attack.

The Australian government has warned people travelling to Delhi to exercise a "high degree of caution" and that the chance of a terrorist attack remains high.

Crosswhite has told Australian athletes the ACGA believes "the security risk position for our team is at an acceptable level".

Meanwhile there is finally some brighter news for the Games.

The protracted monsoon rains that have contributed to an outbreak of dengue fever and slowed Games preparations are expected to subside after Sunday.

The Weather Channel predicts Delhi will see sunshine from Monday that will last the entire week.

 

[Molawchai]

The Indian government is under pressure on Friday to allay widespread criticism over the Delhi Commonwealth Games as more athletes pull out and team leaders delay arrivals.

Hmm, dosn't sounds too good on paper only but if looking at the bright side="More medals" for Indians
Not bad, not bad at all

 

[Nagraj]

this is wha i posted in another thread....... on't wanna type that much so here it is
copy paste.



While I am totally disgusted with the way CWG preparations have been handled, feel like lambasting Sheila Dixit, Kalamadi and especially Lalit Bhanot and as a taxpayer feel like asking for a refund, An athelete friend of mine encouraged me to look at the brighter side and some of the positives we figured we got thanks to the CWG are below...Hope they help us find something +ve in this whole thing...


Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi playing together! Saina Nehwal! Almost 22000 volunteers who are very excited to make this a success!! Fair play with doping under control (comparatively), fantastic stadia (there's some bad stuff but also a lot of good stuff), Metro, B and B's all over Delhi, an excellent international airport, lovely theme songs, a promise of a great opening ceremony, afforadable tickets, holidays for children and youngsters to enjoy the CwG, a games village and guidelines to citizens to understand the level of disruption that will be caused (this time we've actually received detailed advanced notification about routes/ blockages etc. with detailed schedules released by Delhi Govt. which have allowed us to plan for business contingencies in advance)

Have Fun

 

[kugga]

See the pictures of athletes' village

?BBC Urdu? - ?????? - ????: ???? ???? ??? ????? ?? ???????

 

[mike05]

See the pictures of athletes' village

?BBC Urdu? - ?????? - ????: ???? ???? ??? ????? ?? ???????

Actually most of the internal fittings look okay I think the developer should have controlled the workers. Someone obviously tried to wash mud into the sink. It was probably a result of a rush job which created a mix of workers dealing with the structure and furnishings being mixed together. If it were done in stages this would have been avoided.

Hopefully they can fix this with some elbow grease.

 

[Omar1984]

Indian PM furious over Games' mess
​

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, exasperated by the chaos surrounding the Commonwealth Games, has angrily refused to listen to his sports minister's explanation of the mess, reports said on Saturday.

All major Indian newspapers carried the same front page report based on clearly leaked details of a crisis meeting on Friday between Singh and a number of senior ministers.

During the talks, sports minister M.S. Gill attempted to give a briefing, explaining how problems had arisen during preparations for the October 3-14 event which the media has dubbed India's 'Shame Games'.

But Singh cut him short, saying the time for presentations was long past with barely more than a week remaining until the opening ceremony and serious questions remaining over the facilities, especially the athletes' village.

The prime minister "literally threw up his arms in exasperation over the inability of those in charge to tackle even minor issues related to housekeeping", one government source told the Indian Express.

"What is the problem?", he asked those present, including Gill, the source said.

Singh has been increasingly involved in sorting out the Games fiasco since Tuesday when the event seemed on the brink of collapse, amid worries about security, a bridge falling down and complaints about the "******" state of the village.

He has held a series of crisis meetings at the highest level in a bid to bring some focus to crucial remedial work that still remains to be done with athletes already arriving in New Delhi.

The leaked details of Friday's meeting appeared aimed at publicly underlining the prime minister's resolution to ensure that the Games, meant to showcase India's superpower ambitions are a success.

The reported incident as hundreds of staff, overseen by Delhi's chief minister Sheila Dikshit, were deployed to clean the athletes village.

"We are now working on a war footing," said the chief administrator in the village, Ashok Kapoor.

"More than 2000 people are on the job, everywhere, round the clock, cleaning and re-fitting fixtures that do not work or are missing."

Several world class athletes have already pulled out, including Australian world discus champion Dani Samuels, English Olympic 400m gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu and world triple jump champion Phillips Idowu.

Organisers also have struggled with financial woes, an outbreak of dengue fever, the collapse of a footbridge leading to the main stadium and security fears after last Sunday's shooting of two tourists at a Delhi mosque, for which a Muslim militant group claimed responsibility.

Several nations delayed travelling to New Delhi and some even suggested the Games might be cancelled.

 

[ChinaRocks]

don't worry about the games.it will one of the finest commonwealth games ever..
it is just the indian way of organising....

Yes i suppose it is One of the finest for ceiling and bridge collapsed

 

[hecj]

Yes i suppose it is One of the finest for ceiling and bridge collapsed

dude problems happen every where.they may be f different kind.just google out the last games events and the problems faced.
even during the greece olympics,greek authorities were planting trees even one day b4 the games