India battles deepening C'wealth Games
crisis
NEW DELHI (AFP) - – India struggled to keep its Commonwealth
Games on track Wednesday, with England warning the event was on a
"knife edge" over complaints of filthy housing and growing
structural and security fears.
Officials said Commonwealth Games Federation chief Mike Fennell
was flying in Thursday for a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh to discuss the problems overwhelming the October 3-14 event
in New Delhi.
The latest high-profile withdrawals include the English Olympic
400m gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu and world triple jump
champion Phillips Idowu, with Australia warning more of its
competitors might follow.
Their decisions came after complaints by some teams about the
state of the athletes' village, safety fears due to the collapse of
a footbridge near one of the venues and question marks over
security after a gun attack on tourists.
Commonwealth Games England chairman Andrew Foster warned that
the next 24-48 hours would be "critical".
"It's a situation that hangs on a knife-edge. We will not be
sending our team unless we are confident," Foster said, with
athletes due to begin arriving this week for an event that was
meant to showcase the modern India.
Adding to the organisers' woes, a section of false ceiling fell
down on Wednesday at the weightlifting venue, although there were
no injuries.
Indian officials have struggled to keep a positive outlook on
the event, despite the mounting concerns at home and abroad.
"There are some problems. But they are not insurmountable," New
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told reporters.
"To make out that the whole thing is collapsing -- I am sorry,
we do not agree with that," she said.
Scotland -- which hosts the next games in 2014 -- announced it
was delaying the departure of its athletes by a few days, while
Team Wales said it had given the organisers until late Wednesday to
confirm the village and venues were "fit for purpose."
England's Idowu wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter
Tuesday: "Sorry people, but I have children to think about. My
safety is more important to them than a medal."
Indian media described the complaints about "filthy" and
"uninhabitable" conditions at the showpiece athlete's village as a
national embarrassment, calling for those responsible to be held
accountable.
"India has been shamed globally," the Times of India said in a
front-page editorial. "The guilty must be identified and brought to
book.
"It may not restore our reputation, but at least it will show
that we, as a nation, value our honour."
New Delhi is expecting to host some 7,000 athletes and officials
from countries and territories mostly from the former British
empire for the multi-sport event.
"I can reassure everyone that the athletes will enjoy their stay
in New Delhi," organising committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot
told AFP.
"The stadiums are world class and so is the games village. We
will be ready by the time they start arriving."
But Australia warned that more competitors could withdraw, after
world discus champion Dani Samuels made a tearful withdrawal over
health and security worries on Tuesday.
Minister for Sport Mark Arbib said Australia's Commonwealth
Games chief Perry Crosswhite was expecting "a number more" to
follow and that he would be imposing tough rules restricting
athletes' travel in New Delhi.
A home-grown Islamist group on Sunday claimed responsibility for
a shooting on a tourist bus outside New Delhi's main mosque that
wounded two Taiwanese men, prompting a number of Western countries
to issue travel warnings.
The Indian capital has also gripped by an outbreak of dengue
fever, caused by mosquitoes breeding in stagnant pools of water
that have accumulated on games construction sites.
The Commonwealth Games Federation on Tuesday blasted the
official accommodation as "uninhabitable" with rubble in doorways
and malfunctioning toilets, along with electrical and other
problems.
Officials from some teams have even taken to cleaning the
facilities themselves to bring them up to scratch.
The revelations come after a series of delays and missed
deadlines for venues, plus a catalogue of claims about corruption,
dubious contracts and the use of poor-quality materials -- seven
years after India was awarded the games.
-- Yahoo! News
