Delhi clean-up deadline lapses yet again

THE deadline to bring Delhi's troubled athletes' village up to standard was put back yet again yesterday amid fears that work will not be completed in time for the beginning of the Commonwealth Games.

Despite assurances that frantic repair and maintenance work would be completed by today, organisers have been forced to roll back the completion date to Friday, just two days before the opening ceremony.

It comes as Scotland's team attempt to make do with the standard of their accommodation, amid new reports highlighting a series of outstanding faults in their living quarters.

The embattled Games suffered a further publicity blow yesterday after it emerged that fewer than one out of every eight tickets that have gone on sale for the various events have been sold.

As hundreds of athletes from around the world arrived in the Indian capital yesterday, work was still going on in the athletes' village, where for the past week, concerns have been raised about hygiene and infrastructure issues.

An army of about 4,000 labourers has been working around the clock to ready the site, which was due to be finished last week.

Delhi's chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, admitted that a revised deadline of this evening would not be met, but said she was "confident" the Games would begin on time.

"It will take another two (to] three days. We will be up and ready," she said.

"I went to Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and everything is going on fine. Additional workers from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi have been roped in at the stadium."

Athletes from Team Scotland continued with their training sessions yesterday, as new images emerged of problems with their accommodation, including balconies with no railings, and loose electrical wiring in ceiling lights.

Photos taken of their living quarters also revealed leaking air conditioning units and unfinished kitchens, and missing railings in internal balcony areas.

Some bathrooms were also found to have broken windows, which have since been replaced.

However, the team said the focus of its attention was on the upcoming events. A spokeswoman for the group said: "Our athletes are happy and focused on the competition.

"Other countries still have some issues with their arrangements and we are working with the organisers to get it sorted out."

Caroline Brownlie, an Edinburgh-born shooter, said of her accommodation: "It's much better than I expected.

The team who came out before us have done a great job."

The last party of Scottish athletes is due to arrive in Delhi today Originally due to fly out last Thursday, the party of 41 athletes and officials from the rugby 7s, boxing and wrestling teams left Glasgow Airport yesterday afternoon.

Some 850 athletes from around the world arrived in the Indian capital yesterday, including members of the New Zealand, South African and Australian teams.

Meanwhile, tourism minister Kumari Selja admitted that of the 1.7 million tickets available for spectators at the Games, only 200,000 had been sold.

In the week before the beginning of the Melbourne Games four years ago, 1.3 million tickets had been sold.

Ms Selja accepted that the recent negative publicity had contributed to the poor take-up, and hoped more tickets would be sold once the Games began.

Chidambaram takes stock of security arrangements for Games

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram dropped in at the Delhi Police headquarters here on Tuesday to take stock of the security arrangements for the Commonwealth Games scheduled to kick off on October 3.

During the two-hour-long meeting attended by Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal and the venue commanders, it is learnt that the Home Minister sought from them information about the day's developments on the security front at all the Games-related venues. Mr. Chidambaram also directed the officers concerned to keep him abreast with issues that still remain unresolved.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, the Police Commissioner had attended a meeting chaired by the Union Home Minister to review the situation. “Mr. Chidambaram has been closely monitoring the developments on the ground. He has been holding at least two meetings every day to take stock of various security-related aspects of the Games,” said an official.

Among the crucial problems still being faced by the police is the uploading of data on accredited persons and radio-frequency identification (allotted to the authorised vehicles) onto the central server for the electronic identity authentication of all those entering the secured premises. The police have been verifying the cards manually so far.

According to sources, it is learnt that records of thousands of accreditations have been forwarded by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee to the Electronics Corporation of India since Monday to be uploaded. However, a large part of the furnished data has been found to be incomplete in many aspects and even improperly presented, defeating the purpose. For instance, in several cases exact names of the accredited persons had not been given. “Since the identity cards would be verified electronically through scanners, essential particulars of the cards must match with the relevant data stored in the system. Any discrepancy would lead to rejection of the cards, causing inconvenience to the card holders,” said a source.

The issue was taken up on Monday during a meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai that was attended by officials of the Department of Telecommunications, ECIL and the Delhi Police.

However, till Tuesday evening the issue was yet to be resolved completely to the satisfaction of the Union Home Minister . A police team was reportedly sent to the Organising Committee office at Jantar Mantar to collect the data late on Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, over 60,000 nanotechnology-based non-cloneable I-cards have so far been distributed among Delhi Police officers and personnel.

More lanes dedicated to Games traffic

As the Commonwealth Games draw nearer and more lanes dedicated for Games-related traffic become operational, the number of people being issued challans also showed an increase with 172 people booked on Tuesday.

“We issued 149 challans and served 23 notices today. There were 65 violations reported from the Southern range and 64 from Central Delhi,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg.

He agreed that there was more congestion and prosecution because two more routes -- from the Games Village to Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium and Indira Gandhi Sports Complex -- were also opened for Games-related traffic.

He said Games lanes leading to Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range, Thyagaraj Sports Complex, R. K. Khanna Tennis Complex and Siri Fort Sports Complex would be opened for some time on Wednesday in addition to existing restrictions.

The restrictions imposed on entry and parking of vehicles around Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium from Tuesday also went off well, according to Mr. Garg. Commuters unaware of the new restrictions were seen being guided by traffic police personnel deployed around the stadium. No buses or heavy vehicles were allowed to enter Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium road.

Meanwhile, the State Transport Department also issued a notification regarding commercial vehicles in and around Delhi from September 30 to October 15. It prohibits the entry, plying and idle parking of heavy, medium and light goods vehicles from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on 84 roads including NH-8, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Aurobindo Marg, Nelson Mandela Marg, Aruna Asaf Ali Road, Thimmaiah Marg, Shankar Road, DBG Road, Rani Jhansi Road.

It also imposed peak hour and 24-hour restrictions on entry, plying and idle parking of HGVs, MGVs on certain roads.

Delhi Traffic Police will launch a volunteer programme for Commonwealth Games on Wednesday wherein Delhiites would be allowed to assist traffic policemen in different parts of the city. These volunteers would be handed over their kits and begin working along with the traffic police from Thursday, said Mr. Garg.

The volunteers would not have the power to prosecute offenders, but would assist traffic policemen stationed at various places in the city.

Sania Mirza's family confirms she will stay at Games' Village

The family of the Indian tennis star Sania Mirza today dismissed as rumours the buzz that she may not stay at the Commonwealth Games Village in New Delhi.

While the international stars have started coming to Games Village, the latest buzz at the sprawling athletes' facility was that Indian tennis stars Sania and Mahesh Bhupathi may not stay there.

It was said that Sania mightprefer staying with husband Shoaib Malik -- a former Pakistan cricket captain -- and Bhupathi may stay with fiance Lara Dutta, a Bollywood actress.

When contacted, Sania's father Imran said she will surely stay at the Games Village.

"She will check in to the Village with the rest of the team," Imran said.

Sania had recently come here along with Malik.

Bhupathi could not be reached for comment.

Tennis will make its debut in this edition of the Commonwealth Games, sheduled to begin on October 3.

Over 3,100 athletes in Delhi for CWG

Over 3,100 Indian and foreign athletes have arrived here for the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games. Around 850 athletes arrived Tuesday.

Canadian Susan Nattrass, a six-time Olympian and seven-time world trap shooting champion, was among the athletes who arrived Tuesday. She has two silver and three bronze medals in the Games to her credit.

The Jamaican contingent comprising Allodin Fothergill (men's 400 metres), Lerone Clarke (men's 100m), Oshane Bailey, who held the No.1 position for 100 metres at the Reebok Grand Prix in 2009 and Ricardo Cunningham, an 800 metres specialist has also arrived, an Organising Committee press statement said.

Also in Delhi is the Australian women's hockey team, winners of three Olympic gold medals, five World Cup titles, three Commonwealth Games medals and 12 Champions Trophy
titles.

Malaysia had 93 more athletes and officials coming in, the largest contingent Tuesday. These athletes will participate in archery, aquatics, cycling, gymnastics, badminton and weightlifting. Northern Ireland, New Zealand, England and Australia were among the countries whose athletes arrived this day.

Gill, Kalmadi meet Prez, invites her to be chief guest

Union Sports Minister M S Gill and Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi on Tuesday met President Pratibha Patil and invited her to be the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

"The President has accepted the invitation", a Rashtrapati Bhavan press release said Tuesday evening.

Under a compromise reportedly reached between New Delhi and London, Prince Charles will declare the games open while President Patil will say 'let the Games begin'.

Gill and Kalmadi met Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and invited her to be the chief guest on Sunday when the sporting extravaganza begins.

Later while introducing the Games mascot Shera to the President, Kalmadi said "the stadiums are all complete. They are world class. Games are on track."

Kalmadi said that despite some criticism about the Games Village, he had spoken to many athletes and they have expressed their satisfaction about it.

British tennis player Bloomfield to skip CWG due to injury

England  tennis player Richard Bloomfield is the latest to join the growing list of players pulling out of the crisis-hit Commonwealth Games after failing to recover from a back injury.

Bloomfield, rated as England's fifth-best tennis player, opted out of the quadrennial event on Monday, after failing to regain full fitness from a long-term back problem which he aggravated during a tournament in France earlier this month.

Josh Goodall will replace the 302nd ranked Bloomfield in the Delhi-bound England tennis squad, which also has Sarah Borwell, Ross Hutchins, Katie O'Brien, Ken Skupski, Anna Smith and James Ward.

"I'm so disappointed to miss out on the Commonwealth Games. I was really looking forward to representing my country, particularly given this is the first time tennis has been part of the Games.

After his inclusion, Goodall, said "I'm so excited to have been selected. It's always the greatest honor to represent your country and I can't wait to get out there.


"The Commonwealth Games are such a huge deal within world sport and to have the opportunity to compete at a major multi-sport event and be in the company of some of the biggest names in sport is a fantastic opportunity for me."

Bloomfield is the eighth British athlete to have pulled out of the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
Earlier, world triple jump champion Phillips Idowu, 1,500m defending champion Lisa Dobriskey and Christine Ohuruogu opted out of the Games for varied reasons.

If that was not enough, four British cyclists -- Geraint Thomas of Wales, Peter Kennaugh of the Isle of Man, and Ian Stannard and Ben Swift of England -- have also decided against travelling to Delhi, citing fears over sanitation at the much-criticised Games Village and safety issues.