Commonwealth Games England launch vote to choose Delhi anthem

Commonwealth Games England (CGE) will let the nation decide which anthem will be played at the New Delhi Games after launching a competition that will allow the public to vote online.

Voters can choose  between God Save The Queen, Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory - with the winner becoming the official anthem of the England Team to be played on the podium in Delhi, as well as at the welcoming ceremony when the St. George’s flag is raised.

Edward Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory is the current anthem but was criticised during Manchester's Commonwealth Games in 2002.

Duncan Lewis, Marketing Director for Commonwealth Games England, said, “We’re really excited that the nation will be deciding our anthem for the Games.

"Everybody has their own opinion on what should be played, and having the public actively involved in the team’s decision making is great. Their involvement represents everything that we’re trying to achieve with our inclusive ‘We Are England’ brand – bringing the whole of the country together”.

Scottish athletes voted for Flower of Scotland to be their official national anthem for Delhi earlier this year.

Scotland the Brave had been used at previous games, but athletes voted by 211 to 15 in favour of Flower of Scotland.

Govt ready to borrow, buy, rent ambulances

With the Commonwealth Games deadline fast approaching and the partnership with Fortis Hospital failing, sourcing ambulances has become a major concern for the Health department.

In desperation, the state department has decided to buy, borrow and rent.

In a recent meeting with the heads of over 30 private hospitals in Delhi, Health minister Kiran Walia discussed the options, one of which is using the services pro-bono.

“The private hospitals have been considerate and have offered us help in every possible way,” Walia said. “Many of them are offering us brand new ambulances for use during the Games. There is no reason to worry as the ambulances will be arranged well within time.”

The Delhi government will soon place urgent short notice tenders to procure 31 ambulances — of which 21 will be Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances and 10 Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances.

“We will have ALS and one BLS ambulance in each of our hospitals. Besides, we will rent ambulances and ensure there is no shortage,” she added. The tender process is likely to be over within two months.

The state government had earlier partnered with the Fortis Group to roll out 150 fully equipped ambulances in time for the Games. The first batch was to be delivered in January. The PPP, however, fell apart after the Health minister inspected the fleet and found that they had failed to meet government specifications.

The Health department will soon be approaching an arbitrator for a closure on the PPP with Fortis.

Of the 150 ambulances, 141 will be for basic life support and nine advanced life support. Besides, there will be 20 ‘first-responder’ (two-wheeler) vehicles — the objective of which will be to reach the victim within 15-20 minutes of receiving the call for help.

Since 1991, pre-hospital medical emergency transportation and ambulance services have been provided through the Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS). Currently, there are 35 CATS ambulances spread across 21 base stations in the city.

On an average, five to six of these remain off roads due to maintenance problems each month.

Street vendors, corporate hands clear Delhi garbage

At least 1,000 people, ranging from employees of leading corporate groups and the civic wings of the Delhi government to street vendors and individual volunteers, Saturday cleared more than 500 tonnes of litter from the Bhikaji Cama commercial complex in south Delhi in a unique citizens’ initiative that aims to clean public spaces in the capital before the Commonwealth Games.

The initiative, ‘Let’s Do It Delhi,’ is modelled on a clean-up campaign in the Baltic nation of Estonia where 50,000 people removed 10,000 tonnes of garbage in five hours May 3, 2008, the organisers of the campaign said.

‘I saw a video clip of the Estonia clean-up on YouTube in mid-January. It was a source of inspiration. I always felt that the city was in a mess and someone had to take the responsibility to clean it up,’ Anita Bhargava, the brain behind ‘Let’s Do It Delhi’ told IANS.

‘It was not possible to do so as an individual. I gathered a few friends, became proactive and started talking to people, including government agencies. I realised we could do a lot together,’ she added.

Since 7 a.m., the beige and red ultra-urban concrete office complex, often hailed as a contemporary architectural masterpiece, was a hive of activity.

Volunteers clad in white T-shirts with ‘Let’s Do It’ logos, gloves and caps scraped dirt and picked garbage from every nook and cranny of the complex and dumped it into giant bin bags.

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) workers, who had turned up in their hundreds, sprayed the complex with water and acid to remove stench and stains from the facades and the sprawling forecourts.

Smaller alleyways, choking with dirt and dry leaves, were opened up after the three-hour clean-up. The area was divided into 15 zones for the drive.

The complex is home to corporate giants like the Mahindras, Jindal Steel, Punjab National, Jindal South West (JSW), Engineers India Limited (EIL), Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) and PTC.

Key government offices located in the complex belong to the finance ministry, Income Tax department, passport office, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Competition Commission, Central Information Commission (CIC), Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the Indian Railways.

Hotel Hyatt Regency occupies pride of the place next to the corporate complex.

Bhargava said her team chose Bhikaji Cama complex because of ‘its fantastic location’.

‘The objective is to develop a cleanliness model for all the office complexes and commercial spaces in the capital before the Commonwealth Games,’ she said.

A former IT professional in the US, Bhargava had earlier, along with her team, purged the Rose Garden opposite the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) of 1,300 kg of litter in January.

‘Corporate support for the project has been overwhelming,’ said Prableen Sabhaney of FabIndia, the apparel chain that pitched in with manpower and infrastructure for the initiative.

The ICICI Bank sent a team of 200 employees led by their Mumbai-based senior general manager Sachin Khandelwal.

‘We are so busy chasing professional targets that we rarely have time to set social targets. The amount of garbage I personally removed in a day was the amount I would create in a month. I would love to see European-style street corner fresco dining facility in a place like the Bhikaji Cama complex,’ Khandelwal said.

Sarat Kishor Panda of Jindal Steel, who oversaw the preparations for the campaign since 3.30 a.m., said: ‘It is the duty of the occupants of a place to clean up the environs. People have to be counselled against misusing public places.’

Jindal Steel has been trying to clean up the complex for a long time. ‘At night, the place is used as a watering hole by idlers and criminals. During the day, people use it as a public toilet in defiance of the rules,’ Panda said.

The occupants aside, the clean-up drive was supported by Nasscom, ICICI, FabIndia, Nimbus Harbor, MCD, DDA, SC Johnson, KPMG, Hotel Radisson and several others with working bases in the capital.

Map's Ready For Common Wealth Games 2010,But Not The Roads

In 20 months from now, when the Commonwealth Games begin, a Ring Road bypass is expected to reduce travel time between the Games Village and other sporting venues spread across the Capital. However, construction of the 5.5 km road project is yet to start.

The Ring Road bypass is just one of the much-delayed road infrastructure projects that would ensure that athletes and visitors can smoothly reach the sporting venues, situated in different corners of the city According to a recent report submitted to the Delhi government by the engineering wing of Public Works Department (PWD), the agency constructing most infrastructure projects in the Capital, physical progress on most Games-related projects is poor.

The Barapullah drain elevated road project is just seven per cent complete. The elevated road promises to reduce travel time between the Games Village and the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, one of the main sporting venues, from 45 minutes to 12-15 minutes. PWD engineers insist planning of most projects was done well in time and they attribute any delay to a multiplicity of agencies and their delayed approvals. "Delhi Urban Arts Commission had in principle approved our design for the Ring Road bypass project in December 2007. Later, it raised certain objections and we had to carry out the drill again.

Despite the fact that we were losing crucial time, the DUAC did not give us permission and we had to approach the Lieutenant Governor to start construction," said a senior PWD engineer on condition of anonymity "Many issues have delayed the projects related to the Commonwealth Games. Even though PWD wants to expedite the projects, it cannot do so unless there is a unified transport authority or an appellate body where all the concerned agencies come together," said PK Sarkar of School of Planning and Architecture. "Decisions have to be taken at a single platform instead of moving around from agency to agency Only then can all hurdles be cleared," he said.

The official calendar for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is as follows