Commonwealth Games Update
The greatest sporting extravaganza in India in the last three decades is all set to start in less than a couple of month’s time. Yet the Commonwealth Games remain tainted with a plethora of controversies with regards to the organization of this mega event.
The Chairman of the Organizing Committee Michael Fennell will visit the Thyagaraj Sports Complex situated at the venue of the Games New Delhi on Wednesday.
The motive behind the trip was to conduct an inspection and visit the various facilities that have been developed for the event.
Besides his visit to the venue, Fennell is expected to be present at other venues for the event and inspect allied infrastructure facilities.
Some of the facilities for the event are still under construction. During his visit, Fennell is also expected to be briefed by local officials of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee.
The committee will convey the difficulties that they had to face in putting up a decent show and prepare world class facilities for a galaxy of international stars that are set to converge to the country from all over the world.
Fennell's tour to the country is seen as an important development in the wake of a surfeit of allegations that have surrounded the sporting extravaganza.
The Games have been hampered due to allegations of corruption have surfaced.
On the other hand, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has taken strict notice of the financial mishandling around the Games. He has summoned a debate of leading ministers and government officials over the ruckus that has made the preparations of the event into a serious source of embarrassment for the Indian nation.
The PM has asked the organizers about their preparations in order to know if they were on the mark with regards to the development of the infrastructure for the Games.
The Premier is also set to probe allegations of irregularities and misappropriation of funds that were allocated by the government in different projects surfaced in the national media.
Only two weeks ago, Central Vigilance Commission, an independent body which keeps a check at federal government expenses found irregularities in several CWG-related projects that have been carried out by civic and construction agencies at the central venue in New Delhi.
It remains to be seen as to how the nation responds to the problems faced in organizing the sporting extravaganza as civil society groups and forums have questioned the quality of the infrastructure being developed for the mega event.
The event has been marked by allegations from authorities that prepared shoddily for the event that is India’s bid to win hosting rights of some of the more important events and global sporting competitions like the Olympic and Asian Games.
The South Asian giants are expecting to host about two million tourists, besides some 10,000 athletes from as many as 71 teams representing 54 Commonwealth member states.
The mega event is set to be staged from 3 to 14 October in New Delhi.
Meanwhile amid the talk about the state of facilities in New Delhi for the Games, the Indian government has fulfilled a long standing commitment to promote and popularize the game of Polo in Indian Kashmir, by endorsing an outlay of rupees 250,000 for upgrading an existing facility for the game in the region.
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