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CWG organisers promise to improve Village hygiene

Last updated on: September 21, 2010 19:14 IST

The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee told media persons that they would be addressing the concerns of some of the nations regarding hygiene at the Games Village on a 'war footing'.

OC General Secretary Lalit Bhanot claimed that over 75 percent of the Games Village has already been cleaned up and rest of the work would be completed before September 23 when the first batch of athletes start arriving.

Giving a rather strange explanation for the hygiene standards at the Village, Bhanot clarified: "Everyone has a different standard of hygiene. The rooms of the Games Village may be clean according to you and me, but they have some different standard of cleanliness."

"When the labour is not allowed to go out they might use the toilets to answer calls of nature. Now the cleaning up is going on full swing we would put everything in proper place," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Commonwealth Games Federation Chief Executive Mike Hooper termed the Village as "filthy and uninhabitable".

"Predominantly the issue is of cleanliness of the towers in the residential zone. The matter came to our attention when we paid a preliminary visit to the Games Village on September 15 along with some representatives of the advanced parties of Commonwealth Games Associations (CGA)," Hooper said.

Bhanot said it is also natural that newly constructed accomodations would have some problems to begin with.

"When a house is under construction then there are many loopholes in the accomodation. Some where the electric switch would not work and somewhere you would find something leaking. They all take time to be fixed," he said.

"I have visited a number of Games Villages myself but the facilities in CWG Village are the best according to the international standards. All the venues are complete and in good shape. We are confident that games would be a roaring success," Bhanot said.

The Delhi Games received a slight jolt earlier in the day when a footbridge collapsed near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, one of the venues for October 3-14 mega-event. Twenty three labourers, who were working at the site, were injured in the incident.

However, Bhanot brushed off the incident and said such problems are common with a big event like the Commonwealth Games.

"The collapse of the footbridge is unfortunate, but we assure you that it will not affect the Games. All Games have such problems, we are glad that this happened now. The Games will be unaffected," Bhanot added.

The OC General Secretary seemed short of answers and called off the press conference suddenly when he realized that it was getting too uncomfortable for him.
Onkar Singh in New Delhi