Adding more disgrace to India’s attempts at holding the Commonwealth Games, a day after the foot overbridge collapsed near Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Tuesday, a false ceiling at the newly-constructed weightlifting stadium at the same venue also partially caved in on Wednesday morning. Thankfully, however, there were no injuries in the incident which took place at 8 am while a joint team of Delhi government and CWG organising committee officials were inspecting the venue.
As India’s image continues to take a hit globally over the Games, the president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, Mr Michael Fennell, is making an emergency visit to New Delhi and will reach the Indian capital on Thursday. He is expected to seek the direct intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to save the Games. The CGF chief is due to attend the opening of the athletes’ village.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, a petition was moved in the Supreme Court seeking re-examination of the environmental impact of the construction of the Commonwealth Games Village and other structures along the bank of the Yamuna river.
The Delhi government has been asked by the Centre to take over the cleanliness and maintenance of the Commonwealth Games Village from the DDA from Thursday.
Unfazed by repeated disasters and the mounting criticism both within the country and overseas, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit described the collapse of false ceiling on Wednesday as a “minor” matter. She also lashed out at the media, accusing it of “sullying the country’s image”.
Adopting an aggressive stance, the chief minister said she did not think that the entire Games
was on the verge of a collapse. "I would like to tell you categorically
that these minor glitches and hitches do happen, but to say that the
whole thing is collapsing... I am sorry, but we do not agree with that,"
she said. She then added: "There will be some problems, and there
are some problems. But they are not insurmountable. If there is any
concern or problem, it will be addressed."
The embarrassment grew as several tiles from the false ceiling of the
weightlifting stadium collapsed just ahead of the visit of Cabinet
Secretary K.M. Chandrashekhar, who has been directed by the Prime
Minister’s Office to monitor the preparedness and work of the Suresh
Kalmadi-led CWG organising committee. Incidentally, over the past
three days as the preparations for the Games appear to be falling
apart, Mr Kalmadi is nowhere to be seen. Efforts to contact him at his
residence also proved futile. Sources close to Mr Kalmadi, however,
tried to shift the blame for the glitches to the Delhi government and the
CPWD, saying that out of the `70,000-crore budget for the Games, the
"lion’s share was being spent by the Delhi government and the urban
development ministry."
This is the third incident of collapse in the past three days. On
Monday a canopy in the stadium had fallen, in which two policemen
had sustained minor injuries. On Tuesday, causing huge
embarrassment to the CWG organising committee and the Delhi
government, the footbridge linking the stadium to the parking lot had
collapsed.
Immediately after Wednesday’s false ceiling collapse, the organisers
rushed to prevent the media from visiting the site. The area was
cordoned off, and workers were pressed into service to clean up the
mess. Work at the venue came to a standstill for over an hour as a
team of engineers carried on an inspection.
The Cabinet Secretary, while addressing the media about the false
ceiling collapse, acknowledged that there were "some shortcomings",
but went on to stress that everything would be ready by the opening of
the Games and "there is nothing to worry about". He described the
footbridge collapse as "unfortunate", but added that there was
"nothing to fear". He said: "We are in constant touch with the
participating countries and I hope they will come."
As the Congress appeared somewhat wary about defending the
Games organisers, the Opposition pounced on the government over
the "shame" surrounding the Games. Senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah
Naidu, who visited the site of the footbridge collapse, demanding the
direct intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "Please don’t
put the nation to shame by your casual and careless approach. The
Group of Ministers, the Government of India and the Delhi government
cannot escape from their failures and accountability," Mr Naidu said.
He described the remarks of urban development minister S. Jaipal
Reddy and Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit as "insensitive and
irresponsible".
The Delhi high court on Wednesday directed the city government to
pay `3 lakh each to the labourers seriously injured in the footbridge
collapse on Tuesday. The court also asked it to pay `1 lakh each to
those who suffered fracture injuries in the incident. Altogether 27
labourers had received injuries when the footbridge collapsed on
Tuesday.