Commonwealth Games

In September 2009, Commonwealth Games federation chief Mike Fennell reported that the games were at risk of falling behind schedule and that it was "reasonable to conclude that the current situation poses a serious risk to the Commonwealth Games in 2010". A report by the Indian Government released several months prior found that construction work on 13 out of the 19 sports venues was behind schedule. Other Indian officials have expressed dismay at the ongoing delays but they have stated that they are confident that India will successfully host the games and do so on time. All CWG projects were to be completed by May 2009 and the last year should have been kept for trial runs. The first stadium was handed over for trial runs in July 2010 only.To put the delays in perspective, Beijing National Stadium was completed much ahead of schedule for the 2008 Summer Olympics, while the venues for 2012 Summer Olympics in London are scheduled to be delivered one year before the games and the construction of the venues is on track.

In August 2010, the Cabinet Secretariat took a decision to appoint 10 officers of the rank of Joint and Additional Secretaries to oversee the progress of the construction of stadiums. Each officer is allocated a stadium and given the responsibility to ensure that the work completes in time for the games.

There are also allegations of wide spread corruption in various aspects of organising the games including procurement and awarding contracts for constructing the game venues. The Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee on 5th Aug 2010 suspended T S Darbari (joint director in the organising committee) and Sanjay Mahendroo (deputy director general in the organising committee) following the report of the three-member panel which was probing the financial irregularities related to the Queen's Baton Relay. Also Organizing Committee treasurer Anil Khanna resigned from the post in the wake of allegations that his son's firm had secured a contract for laying synthetic courts at a tennis stadium.

The way CWG work is going on, India will surely sucessfully pose the games, but how we don't know. The government should have planned it much earlier. But if they do everything in a hurry they will end up doing a mess.