At the end of the six-day long Commonwealth General Assembly, the only message for the Indian government and games organisers was “time is your enemy.” Due to delay in the execution of most of the projects, the international observers have decided to establish a high-level committee that will monitor progress each month.
“With two years to go to the Delhi Games, I said to the organising committee that time is not their friend. With one year to go, I now say that time is your enemy, but together we can defeat it,” said Michael Fennell, the president of the Commonwealth Games Federation who was in Delhi to review the completion of all the projects.
“Despite falling behind in building infrastructure for the games, we feel that venues will be ready in time for the test events to be held. This is of high priority,” he added.
“I have no doubt that these games can still be great. But now every day is pivotal and every hour vital,” said Fennell, adding that there was no time to debate, but only to act on recommendations.
Referring to his ‘infamous letter’ written to the prime minister in which he had said that games could be partial failure, Fennell said, “As I said in my letter dated September 13 to Suresh Kalmadi and as I reiterated in a media statement on October 2, there are particular concerns across all operational areas as well as with the procurement process.”
Because of the excessive delay in all the projects, the international observers have decided to establish a high-level independent technical review panel that will meet each month and monitor the progress against promise made by the government.
The areas that need urgent attention are village operations, press operations, transport, ticketing, accreditation and over the next few weeks international experts, with big-game experience, would be appointed for venue operations, including cluster managers, spectator services, logistics and sports operations.
“I have sought assurance from Suresh Kalmadi about overhauling the procurement process and he has committed. But while the federation can express its concerns and offer advice, it the government of India, organising committee who have the responsibility of organising the Delhi 2010 Games,” Fennell said.
Fennell also said that during the meeting, discussions were also held on the compensation and health facilities for the athletes. “The figures given by the organising committee didn’t take into consideration that this is an international event.”
