Before The Games Begin
The Lusofonia games are a few months away and the manner in which its preparatory work is underway, it would seem the infrastructure being built is solely for participants in the Games. It gives the impression that the land will be reverted back to its original position lock, stock and barrel at the conclusion of the Games. This notion has arisen following a seeming inadequate application of mind and the haphazard execution of various related works.
Take for instance the infrastructure being put up for the athletics events at Bambolim. It is strange that such a stadium is being built almost cheek-by-jowl to the Goa Medical College. Apart from ailing patients being disturbed by gun shots at track events, the area is poised to be an epicenter of noise from the viewing gallery, not to mention from the riotous revelry from victorious processions. Ground reality indicates there is no approach road leading to the stadium, which means that speeding vehicles cruising along the highway will have to be parked by the roadside creating a bottle-neck.
Even if parking provisions are created away from the highway, it would be fair to predict that this stretch of road is a potential accident prone zone. Road engineers ought to be deployed to examine the best route for vehicles leaving the stadium and returning to Panjim. Long after the Games are over, will motorists perpetually have to face bottlenecks outside the venue every time local school games are held?
In any case, it is strange that the contract for laying the synthetic track surface has been awarded to a company reportedly with no previous expertise in executing such works. What is even more baffling is that no soil tests were conducted before execution of work orders. It is vital to understand that tracks ought to be laid after conducting soil tests to examine local environment and climatic conditions, lest “bubbling” of the synthetic surface occurs. Adequate drainage adjacent to the track is another vital aspect which cannot be ignored.
In such a situation, sports enthusiasts would certainly be interested to know the terms of agreement executed with contractors. The minimum expected is an eight year warranty on the track laid and its suitability to local climatic conditions. Has the government such an assurance from its contractors, so that eventually the infrastructure and its benefits profit local talent long after the Games conclude?
There seems to be an extravagant wastage of public funds in the manner in which the ground, as well as the plinth of the viewing gallery has been raised at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Margao evidently to avoid water logging. This is a colossal drain on the exchequer, giving rise to suspicions that the works are carried out primarily aimed at “commissions”. World-wide, turbine pumps are installed at international stadiums to pump out water instantly, but nothing of the sort has struck our so-called visionaries. Is history poised to repeat itself a la the New Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010, where politicians were accused of looting public funds?
Who are the advisors the State has hired from the Commonwealth Games Secretariat to help guide the government in organizing the Lusofonia Games? Reportedly, the two advisors have been appointed without any Vigilance clearance ~ a usual norm in such appointments. Moreover, what has been their expertise in sports? The State government has failed in following the policy of the Kerala government for the 2014 National Games, where they appointed ex-officio members of the Sports Authority of India as advisors. In our case, the appointed advisors are in reality non-experts in sports, who were retained in the Commonwealth Secretariat, Delhi merely to deal with arbitration cases. No wonder, subsequently additional reinforcements of some 20 additional hands were hired from Delhi to assist in executing the works, when the same could have been allotted to local manpower after initial training.
In all this hullaballoo of the Games, it would be interesting to know the role played by former Sports Director Dr Susan D’ Souza, who was instrumental in bringing the Lusofonia Games to Goa. As weeks and months go by, let us wait patiently and hope we do not have to see the darker side of the Games unfold before the public.
