Schoolkids to the rescue during Games

For 10 days in February, 1,000 children from Delhi government schools will monitor the number of vehicles around Commonwealth Games venues and the data they collect will prove crucial in managing air quality during the October 3-14 event.

The Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, which has developed technology for air quality management during the Games, will give the children a gadget, Click Counter, to collect data.

“For air quality management, we need to know the number of vehicles that use the roads around the venues on an average basis daily. The data collected by children will help develop a basic emissions inventory,” Gufran Beig, a scientist with IITM’s System of Air Pollution Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), told IANS.

Cautious Australia leave Delhi decision to players

The Australian government has ruled out ordering a boycott of this year’s Commonwealth Games in India despite fresh warnings from security experts over the safety of visiting athletes.
Australia’s acting foreign minister Simon Crean said the government was monitoring security arrangements in New Delhi but the final decision about participating in the Games would be left to competitors and sporting bodies.

“In the end, it is not a decision for the government whether the team actually goes,” Crean told reporters on Sunday.

“It is a decision for the athletes. It is also a decision for the sporting bodies.”

“At this stage, we continue to say there is no reason for concern. That is a view that has been expressed by the sporting bodies and by a number of athletes.”
Crean’s comments followed a warning in Australian media about security arrangements for the Commonwealth Games.

The Sunday Telegraph quoted Lloyd Bromfield, described by the newspaper as an international security consultant who had worked at the past three Olympics and had been hired for London in 2012, as saying New Delhi represented a real risk to visiting athletes.

“The worst-case scenario could be a major bombing,” he told the newspaper.

“It could be a Mumbai-style (attack), where you’ve got a team of Osamas running around with hand grenades and small arms. It could be anything.”

Bromfield’s warning came a week after another Australian security expert urged the government to provide extra protection for athletes because of the threat of an attack.

A London newspaper reported late last year that England were planning to pull out of the Games because of fears of an attack but English officials said the reports were not true.
Indian officials have repeatedly given assurances about their promise to provide tight security for the Games, to be held from Oct. 3-14.

Commonwealth Games boycott to rest with athletes

THE Rudd government has singled out athletes' safety at this year's Delhi Commonwealth Games as a top priority.

"At this stage there is no reason for concern, but we will continue to apply the strictest endeavours to ensure their safety," Acting Foreign Minister Simon Crean said yesterday.

But Mr Crean stopped short of calling on Australia to boycott the Games in October.

"The decision on whether to attend the games remained with the individual athletes. It isn't a decision for the government as to whether the team actually goes," he said.

Australian-born Sri Lanka cricket coach Trevor Bayliss backed calls by former England batsman Chris Broad for tighter security at all major sporting events in hot spots on the subcontinent.

It follows the shooting of three Togo soccer officials at the African Nations Cup tournament.

Bayliss, like Broad, almost lost his life in a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore last March.

"Watching news footage of the Togo team being shot at brought back a lot of bad memories," Bayliss said.

"But how much security is too much security. I know just how those Togo soccer players are feeling right now."

Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief executive Perry Crosswhite said sport had been seen as a soft target for terrorist groups since the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Opposition sports spokesman Steve Ciobo said no gold medal was worth risking athletes' lives.

"The Rudd government must provide an assurance to Australian athletes and their familieis they will be completely safe," he said.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said if there were safety concerns, the government would need to immediately review security arrangements.

Ms Bishop said attacks on Indian students in Melbourne had resulted in a "perception problem" for Australia in India.

Hewitt faced with Games schedule clash

IF Australia's No 1 tennis player Lleyton Hewitt skips this year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi, it is more likely to be because of a scheduling conflict than because of security fears, he said yesterday.

Hewitt said he had yet to consider whether Delhi would be a safe place for him to play in October.

"Right at the moment, I haven't given it any thought, to tell you the truth," he said.

"I didn't know tennis was in the Commonwealth Games until a month ago. But I have contractual commitments to play in Asia at that time. I think it coincides with the Tokyo tournament so it's a tough one."

Hewitt has been sensitive to security risks in the past, expressing concerns about the Davis Cup tie in Chennai last year that sparked the withdrawal of the Australian team.

He said he remained mindful of security issues but would not automatically rule out Delhi, based on his Davis Cup experience.

India Commonwealth Games village fire kills one

One person has been killed and 12 hurt in a fire at an athletes' village being built for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Indian media reports say.

The fire reportedly broke out in the residential quarters of on-site construction workers.

It comes two weeks after a rugby stadium under construction caught fire.

The authorities are under pressure to finish construction work in major sports venues, amid criticism that some work has fallen behind schedule.

The Games are due to take place in October this year.

Delhi has been undertaking major infrastructure work, including the installation of new metro lines, in preparation for the event.

The Indian Express newspaper said the blaze at the athletes' village near Akshardham Temple had broken out after some of the labourers lit a fire to make tea.

The blaze spread quickly because of foam used to insulate the roofs of the workers' temporary quarters and took almost two hours to put out, the paper reported.

No-one was hurt in the fire at the rugby stadium on 24 December, which reportedly took two hours to extinguish.

Jama Masjid facelift to miss 2010 deadline

Lack of funds is likely to delay the Jama Masjid re-development plan and it may now not be completed before the Commonwealth Games.MCD commissioner KS Mehra had recently written to LG Tejender Khanna seeking Rs 20 crore as additional funds for the project. The Delhi government too had promised to bear one-third of the total project cost. "However, the government is yet to release any money. We are hoping that funds are made available soon. We will divide the work in phases so that some part of the work is completed before the Games,'' said a senior MCD official. MCD's Chandni Chowk re-development plan too has been stuck due to paucity of funds.Civic agency and planners say that it was ambitious on part of the administration to have set a Games deadline for the Jama Masjid plan. "Jama Masjid re-development is a very sensitive project. Even if we had the fund flow, the Commonwealth Games deadline would still have been unrealistic,'' the official said.

The two major stakeholders of the project 633 shopkeepers of Meena Bazaar and the traders of Dargah Sheikh Kallimullah had recently given their consensus to the project. "It took us 50-odd meetings with them to finally come to a consensus on the re-development plan. We now hope to give the historic mosque its much awaited makeover,'' added the official.

In May last year, the MCD had got the Delhi Urban Art Commission approval for the re-development plan. Much of the original plan which proposed underground parkings and a heritage mall has been done away with as both DUAC and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) insisted on minimum intervention in the sensitive zone.

Jama Masjid facelift to miss 2010 deadline