Begging to be caught

More than two months after Delhi authorities launched mobile courts to convict and remove beggars from the capital’s streets, the controversial initiative has made a faltering start.



On a recent trip with police officers through the chaotic streets of Old Delhi, the difficulties for the anti-begging teams trying to get Delhi ready for the Commonwealth Games next year were plain to see.

The simple idea is that police nab the beggars and bring them before a judge on a bus which accompanies the officers. If convicted, they are sent off to “rehabilitation centres”.

In his khaki uniform, SK Tyagi and three colleagues are on the frontline in a fight pitting the force of the law against the force of numbers.

One campaign group estimates there are 200,000 beggars on the streets of New Delhi.

“They’re beggars, but they’re too old,” Tyagi said, pointing to two old women with grey hair and dirty clothes as he picked his way through rickshaws, cars, crowds and overloaded trucks in the dust and noise of Old Delhi.

The two women he had identified ducked into the darkness of an adjacent sidestreet off the main Chandni Chowk thoroughfare.

The team of police officers next tried their luck at a nearby Sikh temple - religious sites being a favoured spot for beggars.

A elderly, bearded man with bare feet sat at the entrance.

“He hasn’t got his hand out, so we can’t stop him,” said Usha Rani, the only woman in the team, whose exasperated tone suggested the complications of her mission were not lost on her.

A little further on, the roaming team found someone who looked like he might fit their strict criteria - aged about 40, he was holding out his hand to indifferent passersby while sitting on a filthy straw mattress.

But after closer examination, it was another false start.

“It’s a leper,” said Tyagi, who explained that they didn’t want ill people.

As he spoke, a group of children could be seen tugging at the clothes of Western tourists asking for coins in full view of the police.

According to Tyagi, they were not arresting children either, mainly because the judge did not have the legal power to convict minors.

In the end, the mobile court parked a short distance away saw no action.

One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, conceded the futility of a fight with limited resources against the tide of beggars.

Rights groups have already attacked the government’s attitude to beggars ahead of the Commonwealth Games, which run from October 3 - 14, 2010, saying prosecuting them does nothing to solve the underlying problem of poverty.

According to a World Bank report, 42 per cent of India’s nearly 1.2 billion population falls below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day.

“We can’t really do much with two mobile courts for the whole city,” admitted the government official.

In a city of 16 million people, only eight police officers and two judges have been assigned to the mobile courts, which are set to function for the next 12 months.

According to the local government, 70 beggars have been arrested since the start of the operation, most of them men from poor Indian states.

If it is their first offence, those convicted are expected to spend between one and three years in a rehabilitation centre where they are supposed to learn a profession, such as plumbing or carpentry.

Repeat offenders can be sentenced to up to ten years in these special institutions, which separate men, women, children and the handicapped.

Commonwealth Games 2010: Cos on fast track to ink sponsorships

NTPC, Hero Honda Motors, Samsung, Coca-Cola and Standard Chartered Bank are among the companies close to signing sponsorship deals for
the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

The organising committee for the Games is targeting total sponsorship to the tune of Rs 1,330 crore and negotiations are in final stages, A K Mattoo, treasurer of the panel, told SundayET. “Among these companies, so far NTPC has committed the maximum sum. We have firmed up nearly Rs 250 crore,” he said.

The sponsorship contracts will allow companies mileage marketing opportunities for their brands at stadiums, the Games village and the official website. The categories of sponsors include lead partners, partners, sponsors, co-sponsors and suppliers. While the lead partner will pitch in with Rs 100 cr, the partner would have to commit Rs 50 cr for the event. “We are looking at two lead partners and ten partners,” Mr Mattoo said.

Tata Group officials met members of the organising panel this week to discuss participation as a lead partner, persons aware of the development said. “It was an informal meeting,” an organizing committee official said.
Spokespersons for Samsung and StanChart declined to comment but other officials in both firms said sponsorship deals are under negotiation. Coca-Cola did not respond to an email.

A Hero Honda representative said the two-wheeler company was one of the largest corporate promoters of sports in India and had been actively promoting various disciplines of sports such as cricket, golf and hockey.

“This is an ongoing process at Hero Honda and we always keep looking for opportunities to further build on our long and fruitful association with sports. However, there is nothing specific for us to announce at this point of time.”

The organising panel had previously told the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) that its sponsorship consultant had got in touch with more than 70 companies and would conclude agreements by March next year. “The projection is to get Rs 960 cr from sponsors first, which will ensure games are on track to be revenue neutral. Due to the global slowdown, it has been a tall order to get sponsors,” Mr Mattoo said.

India promises best-ever and first 'Green' Commonwealth Games

Blending sports with climate change diplomacy, India Saturday said it will hold the first-ever Green Commonwealth Games in 2010 and the best-ever sporting show and underlined that the event will propel New Delhi to a world class city.

Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organizing committee of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, made the remarks at a 'sports breakfast' that the leaders and sports ministers of former British colonies attended.

The breakfast was held at the seaside Hotel Hyatt, where most of the world leades participating in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) are staying.

Addressing the gathering, Kalmadi reaffirmed India's commitment to holding the best-ever Commonwealth Games and a unique event that will have environment and climate as its focus.

'We will hold the best ever Commonwealth Games and the first green Commonwealth Games,' Kalmadi told journalists here.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday made a vigorous pitch for 'equitable and balanced outcome' at the upcomming UN conference on climate change at Copenhagen during his intervention at a special session devoted to climate change at the CHOGM meeting.

'Environment today is a critical component. Recognising this, we will strive towards reducing the carbon footprint to hold the first-ever Green Commonwealth Games and thus become the benchmark for all multi-disciplinary games in the future,' Kalmadi said at the sports breakfast.

India will invest in green infrastructure, pro-active waste management, greening and green ceremonies, Kalmadi said.

Despite skepticism expressed by some about India's preparedness for holding such a mammoth sporting event, Kalmadi conjured a robust picture of the preparations for the Games.

There are always skeptics, but we have proved them wrong again and again, Kalmadi told IANS.

Outlining the detailed preparations for the Games and its expected spinoff for the Indian economy, Kalmadi said the mega sporting event will generate $4.5 billion for India in the 2008-2012 period.

It will create 2.5 million jobs and over 100,000 tourists are expected to visit India, Kalmadi said.

The Games will leave behind a great legacy for New Delhi and for India in the areas of civic and world class facilities, thus promoting Olympics sport in the country, he said.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma and Mike Fennel, president Commonwealth Games Federation, as also sports ministers from the Commonwealth countries, attended the sports breakfast.

India to spend $2 bln on Commonwealth Games

A total of two billion U.S. dollars is estimated to be spent on the Commonwealth Games that will be held in June 2010 in New Delhi, organizers said here on Saturday.

Sindhushree Khular, India's minister of youth, told reporters on the second day of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the capital of Trinidad and Tobago that the budget was much larger than originally planned due to an expansion in the number of venues.

"The original budget estimate was low, the same thing that happened in Glasgow and in London," Kular said, referring to Glasgow's 2014 plan to host the Commonwealth Games and London's 2010 plan to host the Olympics.

"When we made the budget we thought there would be 10 functional areas. We now had to raise the number to 34."

India has not hosted a major sporting event since the Asian Games in 1982 and many of its venues need substantial upgrades to meet the Commonwealth Games standards.

The Indian government is funding the Commonwealth Games and will gain revenues from broadcasting rights sales and sponsorship, said Suresh Kalmadi, head of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee.

"Television sponsorship will double what we had originally expected," said Suresh.

"In order to achieve this, the Games will hold key events to match the time zone of their key audiences. Athletics events will be held in U.K. time for instance," he added.

Kalmadi also said that a successful Commonwealth Games could serve as a platform for a bid for the Olympic Games or soccer's World Cup.

Discussions on climate change dominate Commonwealth Games meeting

Discussions on climate change dominated the first day of the Commonwealth Games Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) here, with most participants calling for universal actions to battle climate change.

The meeting brought together 51 heads of state from Commonwealth nations more than two weeks ahead of the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen next month.

During a press conference in the afternoon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said they would back anti-climate change actions with 30 billion U.S. dollars via an environmental fund that will be spent during the years 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Sarkozy said he had received encouraging promises from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a breakfast.

"Singh also told me that India will never produce more carbon dioxide than the average of all other nations and that India would never be an obstacle in climate change negotiations," he said.

Sarkozy added that France will propose the creation of a new UN body called the World Environment Organization, which will mainly implement agreements that will emerge from the Copenhagen meeting.

No nation would be obliged to choose between growth and carbon dioxide reduction, he continued, describing such an idea as "twentieth-century thinking."

Many of the Commonwealth nations are small island states that have been directly affected by rising sea levels, and others are in the Caribbean which have suffered more frequent and stronger hurricanes due to high sea temperatures.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed France's proposal, saying it is an attempt to bridge the gap between developed and developing nations in order to achieve a clear and legally enforceable deal in Copenhagen. But Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen cautioned that many details need to be settled.

"What we need to achieve in Copenhagen is an agreement on financing. The new fund will need a pledging procedure, and the most developed nations have to participate," Rasmussen said.

It has been accepted that the world's most industrialized nations have to make more efforts than developing nations, becausethey had polluted more to attain their current status, he added.

So far, 85 heads of government have already agreed to participate in the Copenhagen talks, Rasmussen said, adding that many more are considering it.

Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the outgoing chairman of CHOGM, stressed climate change in his speech during the opening ceremony.

"Climate change is a direct responsibility of those who use unclean technologies," he said, adding that "it is a new form of aggression and must be stopped."

The incoming chairman, Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Patrick Manning, said that CHOGM has an obligation to pave the way for the rest of the world "because it contains a microcosm of the international community; small islands, middle income nations and industrialized nations from the world's five continents."

CHOGM has brought representatives of 51 governments to Port of Spain, the capital of Caribbean island nation Trinidad and Tobago.

There are around 5,000 delegates at the conference, including representatives of commonwealth governments, youth organizations, businessmen and non-government organizations.

Govt to spend 678 crore on athletes for Commonwealth Games

A total of 1140 athletes including 485 women are getting help in their training for next year's Commonwealth Games through a scheme,worth Rs 678 crore, the sports ministry said on Thursday.

Responding to a query in Rajya Sabha, the Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Prateek Prakashbapu Patil said they are implementing a scheme, aimed at improving the performance of the Indian contingent in the 2010 Games.

The scheme covers all the competitions in the Games, to be held from October 3 to 14, and a total of 655 men and 485 women elite athletes have been identified for the training, Patil said.

The scheme has been finalised in consultation with Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the concerned national sports federations, he added.

The disciplines include Archery, Athletics, Aquatics, Badminton, Boxing (M), Cycling, Gymnastics, Hockey, Lawn Bowls, Netball (W), Rugby Sevens (M), Shooting, Squash, Table Tennis, Tennis Weightlifting, Wrestling and Elite Athletes with Disability (Athletics, Powerlifting, Table Tennis and Swimming).

India committed to organising successful Commonwealth Games 2010

India on Saturday reaffirmed its commitment to organising the best Commonwealth Games ever next year.

At the Sports Breakfast during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) here, Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and Sindushree Khullar, secretary, sports ministry, outlined Delhi's preparations for the Games.

Khullar gave a detailed presentation on the progress made on various aspects of the 2010 Games scheduled Oct 3-14.

Khullar elaborated on the roles and responsibilities, financial support, venue updates, Games Village, tourist arrivals and accommodation, volunteer programme, preparedness, legacy and the Queens' Baton Relay.

Kalmadi listed some benefits of the Games like the creation of 2.5 million jobs and the economic impact of approximately $4,500 million for India over a period from 2008 to 2012, the 1,00,000 tourists in flow, investment in green infrastructure, pro-active waste management, greening and offset and green ceremonies.

"Environment is a critical component today," he said. "We will strive towards reducing the carbon footprint to establish the first green Commonwealth Games and set a benchmark for all future multi-disciplinary events," Kalmadi said.