Commonwealth Games preparations are on track: Gill

Union Sports Minister M S Gill today said the preparations for this October Commonwealth Games in New Delhi are going on in full swing.

He said barring the main Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, where opening ceremony will be held on October 3, all other stadia are to be completed by the end of April.

The main stadium, where football and other events will also be held, is expected to be completed in another two months time, by June end, he added. Mr Gill was addressing the sportspersons at the Netaji Indoor Stadium where he also opened the 3rd Indo-Bangladesh Bangla Games, in which some 400 athletes from Bengal and Bangladesh will vie for medals in 10 diciplines in 10 venues in the next three days.

He said the hockey stadium was an outstanding architecture, which was appreciated by the participating nations in the recently-concluded hockey World Cup at the major Dhyan Chand statement in New Delhi.

On security aspects during the Commonwealth Games between October 3-14, Gill said, the government already spent about Rs 350 crore for setting up of close circuit cameras in the national capital to watch movement of people or any suspect.. ''Though the sum sounds hefty for a poor country like India, the government has prioritised the security aspect to ensure safety of its people and delegates from other countries,'' the sports minister added.

He said the government had already tested the security system during the recently-concluded four international events which include World Cup field hockey, Commonwealth shooting and Commonwealth Boxing championships. Though there were some comments from certain quarters regarding strict security for crowd as well as sportspersons everybody appreciated successfullly organising of the big events.

On India's performance in the World Cup hockey, Gill said the country stood eighth despite the government's all out effort for improving the standard of games including hiring chief coach from abroad.

Gill, however, stressed unity among the players and officials for improvement in the standard of hockey and said groupism would only harm the reputation of India and doom the prospect of the game.

Regarding two new franchises of IPL T20, he said he would not comment on cricket now.

The sports minister also assured to look into grievances of Archeri Association of India regarding inadequate equipment despite sanctioning of Rs 2 crore for buying gadgets.

Earlier in the day, Gill formally opened an astro turf for hockey at SAI complex at Salt Lake.