Civic bodies take charge of messy Games venues

After being a witness to stinky and filthy toilets at the Games Village and becoming a laughing stock at across the world, the government is finally learning from its own mistakes.

After being a witness to stinky and filthy toilets at the Games Village and becoming a laughing stock at across the world, the government is finally learning from its own mistakes.

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According to sources, in a high-level meeting that took place on Monday, the government has decided that the sanitation work in all the Games venues including the Games Village will be done by Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

There are a total of 11 venues where the sanitation work was awarded to three private companies by the Organising Committee (OC) at a cost of R21 crore.

Earlier, the civic bodies were only going to assist the private companies. However, now the NDMC will take charge of three venues in their jurisdiction and MCD will supervise eight venues that fall in its area.

"After the Games Village fiasco it was felt that the private agencies contracted by the OC may not be able to deliver. Also, after the good work done by the MCD and NDMC in the past three days in cleaning up the Games Village, the government decided that the civic bodies should be entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining sanitation at all Games sites," said a senior official requesting anonymity.

Eight teams have been made of senior MCD officers including the deputy commissioners to recce all the venues immediately and deploy the required number of sanitation workers.