Delhi will be ready by Aug 31: CM

Ending all speculation about the the city’s preparedness for the Commonwealth Games, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday said Delhi will be fully ready by August 31. “Nothing will be left to be undertaken... Delhi will be absolutely ready to host the Commonwealth Games in all respect by August 31,” she said.

On Friday, the Chief Minister chaired a meeting and reportedly stepped up the pressure on agencies to pull up their socks. Dikshit had also visited the Barapullah Nallah elevated road project with Urban Development Minister A K Walia, while Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely visited other Games sites. The CM issued instructions to immediately remove debris strewn all over the city and said permissions for digging and road cutting will not be given after July 31.

Even as Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta has been made the nodal officer to monitor work and address daily obstacles, Walia continued his round of inspections of projects being carried out by all civic agencies and the Public Works Department (PWD) and warned agencies to stick by the deadline.

Meanwhile, a day after Organising committee chairperson Suresh Kalmadi directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to beautify the Capital in time for the Games, the cash-strapped Corporation has written to the Chief Minister asking for Rs 7 crore to fund the work.

“It is very important that the city is presented at its best during the Games and the Corporation wishes to do the best it can. However, the state knows that the MCD is facing a revenue crunch because of many reasons,” said Mayor Prithviraj Sawhney.

The state administration does not give us our due share of revenue in many cases, hence, it must provide for additional work like these,” Sawhney added.

However, once the finances are worked out, MCD plans to immediately implement its extensive beautification plan to “dress up” the Capital. The Corporation is already working on new designs for temporary gates for the seven entry points to the Capital.

It will also put up hoardings related to the games at overbridges and upgrade and repaint all foot overbridges.

The MCD will also install attractive ‘building wraps’ at government buildings near the Games venues as asked by the Organising Committee.

A team of horticulturists will also craft Shera, the Games mascot, out of flowers and plants. Such mosaic culture figures will be installed at 13 sites close to Games venues. The art of mosaic culture was picked up by a team of Delhi civic officials when they visited Japan last September. The installations last between one and three months.

Asked if all this work would be completed on time, Sawhney said: “The MCD is waiting for funds from the government. As soon as we get the money, we will spring into action and complete this work in less than a month.

Commonwealth Games a symbol of change

The Commonwealth Games is less than three months away and the conduct of the event will be a key measure of India's ability to successfully host such events.

A memorable Commonwealth Games will bolster India's hopes of making a strong bid for the 2020 Olympics.

These issues were discussed threadbare in a seminar at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on Friday. The topic of discussion at the seminar, an initiative by the Times of India, was 'Times Future Arenas, From Commonwealth to Olympics'.

Well-known TV anchor Charu Sharma was critical about the manner in which things have been handled since winning the right to hold the Games. "This is a big occasion for us but we have gone around in the worst possible manner. We have been bickering all this while when we should have been working," he said.

Cricketer Aakash Chopra was also sceptical about the preparations. Other speakers including veteran journalist Ayaz Memon, cricketer Deep Das Gupta, former swimming star Hakimmuddin Habibulla and journalist Boria Mazumdar were of the view that the Games should be used as a stepping stone to the Olympics.

"Commonwealth Games would be one more step towards a sporting culture. It will be symbol of change," said Memon.

Gurgaon in preparation mode for CWG shooting event

Authorities in this satellite town of the national capital are gearing up to host the shooting event of the Commonwealth Games with various plans for disaster management and emergencies in the pipeline.

The fire department has been asked to prepare a disaster management plan for the shooting event, officials said Friday.

"The plan should focus on the activities of their department, including the equipments available with them," a senior police officer said.

The competitions of shooting during the Games are scheduled to be held in the range of the Kadarpur Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Gurgaon.

Authorities have assured tight security arrangements in the city during the mega sporting event.

"Tight security arrangements will be made in Gurgaon as well as in the Kadarpur shooting range. Police will keep vigil on the security arrangements in all the shopping malls, markets, hotels, guest houses, metro stations and other important places," Gurgaon Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Mittal said.

An emergency response plan will be prepared with the help of officers of various departments and representatives from the public.

"Each department in the district has been asked to designate a nodal officer on behalf of that department for the Commonwealth Games," Mittal said.

The civil surgeon has been asked to present a health-related management plan with information about number of hospitals in Gurgaon, doctors, number of beds available, ambulances and details of other facilities in hospitals.

There is also a plan of constructing a small four-bedded hospital near the ground in Kadarpur shooting range where four doctors will be deputed.

In addition, two ambulances will remain stationed at the CRPF camp for taking the patients to other hospitals in case of emergency.

Commonwealth Express to chug into Orissa on Aug 7

The Commonwealth Express, an exhibition train, will chug into Orissa on August 7 on its ongoing journey to promote sports, information technology and youth issues.

Indian Railways, a lead partner for the Commonwealth Games, launched the exhibition train in association with the Department of Information Technology on June 24 from Safdurjung railway station, Delhi. The train was flagged off by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Commonwealth Express, East Coast Railways (ECoR), is a fully air-conditioned train, specially designed and painted with the Commonwealth logo along with that of Indian Railways. The exciting sporting exterior graphics on five coaches of the train are dedicated to sports and contain information on Commonwealth Games (CWG), landmarks in the history of Commonwealth games, the Queen's Baton Relay story - its travel plan, concept of first Green Commonwealth Games, CWG Logo and Shera (Mascot of CWG) story.

In the second coach, miniature models of stadiums and their details are presented where the 17 sports are being played in Delhi.

Game schedule at a glance, medal tally and Delhi's preparation at a glance are all available in this coach. Coach number three has live display of sports equipment and important facts about the 17 sports being played at the CWG-2010.

Coach four will be a complete gallery of photographs and names of medal winners at the CWG-2006, Asian Games at Doha, along with various Olympic Games and details of star Indian performers, who have done India proud.

The fifth coach has a display of trophies won by the Railways in the various sports events, besides information on the Indian Railway's pioneering contribution to sports with the list of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardees, Dronacharya, Dhyanchand, Arjun, Padmashri and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Protsahan award winners.

Apart from this, the additional six coaches have the complete Information Technology story of India comprising short information films dubbed in various languages. One of the coaches has been designed as an auditorium with internet, video conferencing and mobile communication facilities, ECoR sources said.

For Village security, school razed

In an attempt to secure the Commonwealth Games Village, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Wednesday razed a school on the Yamuna Khadar, right behind the Akshardham Temple. The school catered to about 180 children of farmers and labourers working in and around the river bed.

Parminder Kaur Somal, who started the school four years back and was teaching here said, DDA had given them no prior notice and arrived with their bulldozers around noon. "The classes were in progress when the DDA team, accompanied by police personnel, arrived at the school. They gave us three hours to clear out and then brought the building down. One official also said if we would furnish an affidavit saying the school would only be reopened after the Games, it could be spared but what could we have done in three hours,'' she said.

While officials maintained the building was totally illegal and no structures were permitted on the river bed, those associated with the school pointed out that compared to the number of unauthorized structures that had come up on the river bed, many of them with the sanction of the government, this was only providing education to poor children who otherwise would never be able to afford going to school. "The government should have thought about giving the children an alternative space at least. If we had known about their plans to demolish the structure any earlier, we could have tried moving out to another place,'' said Somal.

She said eight acres land had been leased to the Delhi Peasant Society in 1949 for a period of 99 years and they had a stay order from the high court prohibiting any further construction in the area. "We have been running classes from nursery to V. Some children who passed out from here have also joined MCD schools. We were working with eight teachers and some volunteers. Now the children have again been left high and dry. We can't imagine what security threat they could have posed to the Games Village,'' said Somal.

Commonwealth Games test events may be hit

There is a good chance that four Commonwealth Games test events lined up for this month may not be held as per schedule because of unavailability of venues.

An international invitational weightlifting event (July 14 to 16), a Federation Cup cycling event (July 23 to 25), an international swimming meet (July 27 to 31) and an Asian all-star athletics meet (July 29 and 30) are all expected to be postponed because different venues are still not ready.

All venues were scheduled to be completed by June 30 and the officials had been claiming all along that if at all this latest deadline would be missed, it would be only by some days. It is learnt that the venues are still running behind schedule and with less than three months left for the CWG to start, it will be another setback.

“It is not yet clear when these venues will be fit to hold competitions. The rains, too, are likely to have a direct or indirect bearing on the progress,” said an official.

All these events are already behind time, what with the deadlines for sports venues being revised time and again. An Asian youth netball meet, currently on in the environment friendly Thyagaraj Stadium, might remain the only test event scheduled for July to be held as planned.

The athletics and weightlifting events will take place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium complex, which will also be the venue for the CWG opening and closing ceremonies.

The Indira Gandhi Stadium complex is being prepared for weightlifting and cycling, while the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee complex is being readied for swimming.

Labour woes affect DDA Games plans

Harvesting of rabi crops, which starts from March is a fairly common phenomenon across the country. But this time around when the winter harvests started in Bihar, its ripple affect was felt in Delhi, host to the prestigious Commonwealth Games in October this year. With most construction workers,hailing from Bihar, heading back home for rabi or winter harvests in April, work on one of the key Commonwealth Games project - readying accommodation for games delegates and tourists - has been running way behind schedule. It was to be completed by June end.

Now, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the city's largest land development agency,  which was tasked to convert 3179 of its upcoming flats in Vasant Kunj, an upscale locality in south-west Delhi and Jasola in south Delhi to service apartments,  is frantically hunting for construction workers from states like West Bengal and Orissa to complete the project on time.

"Though the structure is ready, finishing work inside the flats is yet to be completed and this takes time," said an Urban Development Ministry official on conditions of anonymity.

Of the 8,000 construction workers at the two sites, presently only 2,500 are working. This has resulted in a huge shortfall, which is delaying the completion.

"It's a common phenomenon in the construction industry that workers go back home during the harvest season. They start coming back by July. But DDA should have factored this in before starting the project. Its another example of skewed planning by the agency," said the official.

The delay has set alarm bells ringing in the government. The issue came up in the Group of Ministers meeting recently where a contingency plan was worked out.

"As part of this, DDA has been asked to hire workers from states like West Bengal and Orissa. Also they have been asked get workers from other Commonwealth Games project sites where work has been completed. We are hopeful that the project would be completed before October," said a ministry official.