Delhi CWG 2010 :No centralised monitoring agency

Nksagar- Sagar Media - New Delhi-:
Shivani Chaudhry, Associate Director, Housing and Land Rights Network highlighted irregularities in financial disclosure and problems of accountability and governance due to the lack of a centralised monitoring agency for the Games. “There is a continuous deception of the public in the name of the Games.

Miloon Kothari, Executive Director, Housing and Land Rights Network and former United Nations Special Rapporteur stated that, “even if miraculously the Games are a success, it is already evident from the situation on the ground that serious human rights violations affecting thousands of people across the city are leaving behind a debilitating social legacy for Delhi and a permanent disfiguring
of Delhi’s urban fabric. The Games are a clear step in the direction of Delhi becoming an apartheid city.” He asked for an honest reassessment by government authorities as to whether India is in a position to host the Games given the multiple crises that continue to plague the CWG.

Shivani Chaudhry, Associate Director, Housing and Land Rights Network further highlighted irregularities in financial disclosure said “There is a continuous deception of the public in the name of the Games. Competing facts and figures are being proclaimed, even in Parliament. Despite filing several RTI applications, clarity on the total cost of the Games is missing. Apart from a negative social legacy, the Games are likely to result in a severe economic legacy and national debt that will take a long time to repay.”

Speakers stressed that while the attention of the media and concerned agencies must pursue the corruption allegations and probe and investigate the guilty officials, the broader and more severe impacts of the CWG on the people of Delhi must not be ignored. They demanded that concerned government agencies must act responsibly to ensure that there is an immediate halt to the ongoing violations. In particular, they called for:
1) Halt to evictions in Delhi, and payment of adequate compensation and rehabilitation for the already displaced families.
2) Immediate implementation of the recommendations of the special committee and interim orders of the High Court on labour issues at CWG sites.
3) Investigations by the Central Vigilance Commission, Comptroller and Auditor General of India, and relevant Parliamentary Committees, into the issue of diversion of funds from the Special Component Plan for the welfare of Dalit families in Delhi.
4) Immediate return of appropriated funds to social sector and development projects in Delhi.
5) Commonwealth Games authorities to set up information, surveillance and support centres at the popular sex sites like GB Road, railway stations, bus stops, airports, and metro stations, and make provisions for young women to go back home safely, including providing tickets.

'Rights of workers' - Delhi CWG 2010
Shashi Saxena of Peoples Union for Democratic Rights. These include denial of minimum wages, overtime and weekly off days; irregular payment of wages; failure to provide identity cards, proof of employment, wage slips, safety equipment and travel allowance to migrant workers; failure to register workers with the welfare board; use of child labour; non-maintenance of muster rolls and other records as required under the law, payment of lower wages to women workers; failure to provide adequate residential and living facilities in accordance with law. All these acts are also violations of various labour laws. Despite a hard hitting report by a special committee appointed by the High Court of Delhi in response to public interest litigation, and interim orders by the Court to implement the committee’s recommendations, not much has changed for workers at CWG construction sites. Workers continue to be exploited, by being made to engage in forced labour and being paid less than two third of the minimum wages almost at every site. Half-hearted attempts are being made to register the workers with the welfare board, but the exercise has not gone beyond tokenism.
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