Authorised mess

Athletes, mediapersons, doctors being harassed in the name of accreditation

It is not just the common Delhiites who are facing the heat of the Commonwealth Games, people who are often spared the bureaucratic hurdles are also tasting the bitter pill.
Several athletes, mediapersons and doctors are not being able to perform their respective duties as they are yet to be issued the accreditation cards so that they could enter the venues.


gate pass: Suresh Kalmadi flashing his accreditation card. Pic/Imtiyaz Khan

No play
Athletes - people who are the centrestage of the any sporting event - are already facing the consequences of abject inefficiency on part of the organisers. Even as several foreign athletes and officials refused to put up in the "filthy" games village, Indian athletes were made to wait in queues to enter to the village. The Indian shooting team was left waiting at the airport for hours and swimming team is staying up at a hotel in Karol Bagh, which will enter the village on Monday morning.

The Indian shooting team which landed yesterday in Delhi at 8:30 pm from Pune was left in the lurch as they had to wait till wee hours of Sunday morning to get the rooms in the village.

The organising Committee took as long as five hours to get a bus, figure out a route to take them to the range so that they can drop off their guns and ammunition, and then head to the village. Finally when the bus arrived it didn't have a clearance to take them to the shooting range to deposit their ammunition.

When the shooters reached the Village at three in the morning it took volunteers an hour to find suitable furnished flats for the Indian team. As per statement of the Indian shooting team manager, Professor Sunny Thomas, there was complete lack of coordination and chaos was everywhere. He also said that the shooters will miss their half day practice.

The swimming team which is practicing in Delhi since September 6 at the Sports Authority of India camp is still to find a room at the games village. Team coach Nihar Amin confirmed that the team is staying at a hotel in Karol Bagh and will move to games village on Monday morning.

Doctors missing
It is not just the athletes, many doctors and support staff are also waiting to get their accreditation cards, sparking fears that who would attend to a medical emergency.
"We were told that we will get the accreditation cards within the fifteen days. But, those fifteen days never came," said a senior official from health department, requesting anonymity.

"Around 350 doctors and other paramedic staff applied for the accreditation cards. Out of them 200 had received the cards," said Dr S Bhattacharjee, director, Directorate of Health Services (DHS).
But sources said a much higher number are yet to get authorisation for entering the venues that have been locked down by security forces.

"1,837 doctors had applied for the accreditation cards," said a senior official from health department.
Sources believe that the lack of coordination is the main reason for such a big mess.
"Earlier our department had asked us to be on the venues with their accreditation cards, but it was not approved by the Organising Committee. So, now our accreditation cards have become void," said an official from Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS).

Many doctors and other paramedic staff who still not have their accreditation cards are made to do the clerical jobs.

"As I am not allowed to enter the venues and cannot go back to our hospitals, I have to look after the supply of the products. If any of the product fails to reach here, we are made to go to the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) to collect the stock," said one of the paramedic who was supposed to be inside the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

Spotlight
All along delaying was a tactic for the organisers of the Commonwealth Games. This was proved in the showdown at the meeting chaired by secretary of coordination Ajit Seth on Saturday wherein DDG Manish Kumar spilled the beans. The officers washed their linen in open. Manish Kumar, who as press incharge completely messed up the media accreditation process, has been sidelined. The whole process of issuing passes to the media has been made so complex and lengthy that several media houses are already complaining. Apart from that each person has been asked to collect his/her pass individually and nationally accepted IDs like a PIB accreditation card are not being accepted as proofs of identity.