Baton telecast plan hits hurdle

The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee is facing a problem. It plans to promote the Games with a direct telecast of the launch of the Queen’s Baton Relay in London on Thursday, reports Anuradha Mukherjee.

The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee is facing a problem.

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It plans to promote the Games with a direct telecast of the launch of the Queen’s Baton Relay in London on Thursday.

But its plan has run into trouble with the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) refusing to give permission to put up an LED screen at Connaught Place’s Central Park.

“It is a crucial event when the Queen will hand over the baton to President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil who will hand it to shooter Abhinav Bindra. Bindra will hand it to the baton relay team that will then carry it through 71 countries. We plan to celebrate the launch at the OC office and one at a public venue at Connaught Place,” said an official.

Apparently, the NDMC

had told the Organising Committee that they were not bound to follow their request since the latter was not a government agency.

“We are looking for alternate locations now within Connaught Place since this is part of the build-up to the Commonwealth Games,” the official added.

Rs 1 crore Network

Meanwhile, the Delhi cabinet on Monday approved Rs 1 crore for setting up a secured communication (Tetra) network on lines of Beijing Olympics for the 2010 Games.

The Tetra system will be a closed system that will be accessible to 17 agencies working on the Games. It will not be

accessible to other communication network.

“The important benefits will be ultimate security, seamless service, superior coverage, shared network without interfering with any existing agency-specific networks, 'scalability' and specialisation,” an official statement said.

The network will be shared between the beneficiary agencies as per their relative strength of system users, the statement added.

The agencies are Commonwealth Games Secretariat, Delhi government, Delhi Police, Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Jal Board, New Delhi Municipal Council, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, and others.