NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – India promised to have the athletes’ housing for the Commonwealth Games cleaned up tomorrow and said workers were labouring at double time to have all facilities ready for the opening ceremony on Oct. 3.
The Games aimed to improve India’s image as a rising power, but criticism of shoddy construction and dirty housing and security fears have instead raised questions about Asia’s third largest economy.
Nearly all of the 1,500 athletes who had arrived in New Delhi by yesterday were staying at the Games Village, the last big unfinished venue.
Many members of the more than 20 teams in Delhi have praised their facilities as roomy and clean, but other delegations have encountered problems, including Scotland’s team, whose chief said “standards were just not good enough”.
A snake was found in the room of a South African athlete and about 150 flats are still considered to be unhygienic, despite a weekend drive by workers to overcome the problems.
The opening ceremony for the two-week sporting event, held every four years for former British colonies, is on Oct. 3 and the Games Federation said all 71 nations will participate.
Some media said there had been a row between India and Britain over whether India’s president or Prince Charles, the heir to the throne who is standing in for Queen Elizabeth at the ceremony, would open the Games. A spokesman for the British embassy, however, said Prince Charles would open the Games and denied there was any controversy. Indian NDTV television said a compromise was reached between the Indian president and Prince Charles.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said the Village, where 8,000 athletes will stay, would be ready tomorrow.
“We inherited a very difficult situation but it’s improving almost by the hour,” she told reporters. “Everybody has been told to work double time and we will do it.”
About 20 athletes, including world champion sprinter Usain Bolt, have pulled out of the Games.
The lack of participation from some of the world’s top sports stars has taken some of the shine from an event India had hoped to use to display its growing global influence, rivalling China which put on a spectacular 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
