With CWG Games in doldrums, PM steps in to steady the ship

AS THE run up to the preparation for the Commonwealth Games take an ugly turn with every other structure falling apart, the Games fiasco has got the authorities running for cover. To make sure that the situation does not deteriorate further, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has called a meeting with Sports Minister M S Gill and Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy today in New Delhi. The meeting is slated to take place in the evening.

Sources from the Prime Ministers Office said that Dr Singh will meet the ministers as he heads the Group of Ministers that keeps a track of the event's preparations amidst mounting international criticism on the country's lack of preparations to host the games.

The preparations were lambasted two days back as a team of delegates termed the Games Village “filthy and uninhabitable”. Teams from Canada, Scotland and New Zealand have postponed their arrival to New Delhi following the accusations.

The authorities and the government got a rude shock when a foot over bridge, that was meant for the athletes collapsed. Although the mishap was termed a minor one, the noise it has created over the past two days compelled the PM to call this meeting.

Congress MP and former Union Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has also lambasted the CWG Federation's head honchos Mike Fennell and Mike Hooper by saying that they have no right to criticise the games.

He further added that Fennel and Hooper, the two 'Mikes' that I refer to them as were associated with Suresh Kalmadi and till recent they were claiming that everything would be spectacular.

So, now what right do they have that at the last moment, to save their own faces they put the blame on someone else. I am not ready to believe that Mike Fennel or Mike Hooper has any right to criticise us this way.