New Delhi:
The Organising Committee (OC) has been facing embarrassment and humiliation over hygiene at the Commonwealth Games Village. Though the OC has been downplaying the issue, a new report will only make matters far worse.
NDTV has access to the minutes of a meeting held on September 17 and 18 between the OC and the members of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales, which detail some very embarrassing observations regarding the cleanliness of the residential zone of the Games Village.
During the meeting on September 17, while the Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) of Scotland pointed out that there were dogs and faeces all over the residential zone, the English delegates said the toilets at the residential area are 'disgusting'.
The CGA of New Zealand even said that there was no way they would let their athletes use "these dirty and unhygienic bathrooms" and that this was a crisis situation and that the OC had not quite been able to understand the magnitude of the problem.
Even more shockingly, the CGF said it had received a photograph which showed a dog jumping on to one of the beds at the residential area and soiling it. They also raised some serious health issues after it was alleged that one of the members of the OC had urinated in a public area.
Meetings were again held on September 18 during which the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) assured the CGAs that the matter has been escalated to the government and that these would be sorted out by the 19th. But neither the CGF nor the CGAs got any sort of response by that date after which CGF president Mike Fennell shot off a letter to the Cabinet Secretary, asking him to take immediate steps to fix the deficiencies in the residential zone of the Village, which he said has "shocked" advance parties from New Zealand, Canada, Scotland and Ireland because of its unhygienic condition.