Urban News

Indian Express  03.11.201

Garbage piles, broken tiles... the rot has set in

As civic bodies and sports panels pass the buck, CWG venues seem to have become eyesores in just 20 days

If CWG competitions were to be held at the SPM Swimming Complex now, only athletic persons would be able to make it into the venue. Less than a month after the complex saw the end of the Games, an entire stretch of tiles at what was once the spectators’ entry-point has been ripped apart for taking out the wires beneath — making it difficult to enter. Besides this, bottles and plastic bags are strewn near the gate, while wires lie around in the corners.

The SPM Swimming Complex is not a case in isolation. It has only been 19 days since the Games ended, and most of the stadiums across the city already seem to have lost their sheen. When Newsline visited the Talkatora Stadium, SPM Swimming Complex and the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, garbage, broken branches and puddles could be seen at venues that were renovated at the cost of crores.

While Talkatora Stadium — which belongs to the NDMC — was cleaner than the other two, it also had garbage dumped in a corner. Its toilets, which were missing seat covers and door knobs, were in a filthy condition.

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium had empty mineral water-bottles, plastic and piles of dirt near the main gate. People entering through Gate 16 were greeted by a huge pile of plastic waste, thermocol sheets and bottles.

A worker at the venue told Newsline that the garbage had been lying there since October 14, the day of the closing ceremony.

“There are some cleaners here, but they clean only the inside of the stadium. There is no one to maintain the rest of the place,” he said. Outside the gate, fragments of glass lie littered. Some said vandals had smashed the outer glass covering of advertisement boards to steal the tubelights inside.

Meanwhile, as the garbage keeps piling at JLN Stadium and SPM complex, agencies in Delhi are passing the buck. While MCD says they were responsible for cleanliness only till the Games were on, the CPWD said as they have handed over the stadium to the Organising Committee (OC) of the Commonwealth Games, maintaining it is not their job anymore.

H S Kingra, in charge of CWG stadiums for the Sports Authority of India (SAI), told Newsline that the rubble and garbage will be removed once it takes over. “The process of taking over a stadium includes a restoration estimation, which means that the CPWD, OC and SAI would jointly review the changes made to the stadium during the Games. After the estimate is done, it would be the OC’s responsibility to restore the stadiums to its original form and give it to the SAI. The rubble is part of the process to restore the stadiums. It will be taken care of soon,” he said.

Kingra added that the fields of play, however, are clear and the stadiums are being rented for hosting tournaments. “Even now, hockey matches are happening at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium,” he said.

The Pioneer  03.11.2010

Staff Reporter | New Delhi

With the number of dengue cases kept rising during last couple of months, Municipal Corporation of Delhi held neighbouring States like Punjab and Haryana responsible for the mess. Claiming that administration of those states did not take any initiative to control mosquito breeding, MCD Health Committee Chairman VK Monga said, "Dengue cases originate in neighbouring States and spread to the city. Due to unchecked mosquito breeding there, people get affected and come to Delhi for treatment leading to transmission of the disease".

"The rampant anti-mosquito breeding drive that is carried out here is not prevalent in the NCR region. As such mosquito breeding there goes unchecked and when people from those areas travel to Delhi, transmission of the disease begins," he also added. The BJP leader said Najafgarh, which is close to Gurgaon, reports several dengue cases due to this factor. "Moreover dengue patients, coming from Gurgaon for treatment in Apollo Hospital or those coming from Ghaziabad for treatment in GTB Hospital, show their relative's address in Delhi as their own. Ultimately the count of Delhi cases rise," he said.

Meanwhile, the dengue menace started showing some signs of decline in the national Capital with the city recording only 22 fresh cases now-a-days in comparison to about 70 cases per day on an average last week. For most of last 10 days, the city reported over 60 or 70 cases a day though the figure was 40 on Monday. The total number of patients this season has reached 5,605. This year's total is more than double of that reported in 2006 when the number of cases was 2,537, the previous high in the past five years. Eight persons have lost their lives to dengue this season. Shahdara North Zone has reported the highest number of dengue cases this season (740) followed by Rohini (712) and Civil Lines (612). Delhi has also reported 33 chikungunya cases this season as per official figures.though health officials say the exact number could be much more.