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Journalism of Courage
Waking up to the fact that the state is yet to build a stadium and games village less than two years before it hosts the 2007 National Games, Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda has started looking towards foreign countries for inspiration.
Munda has planned an eight-day trip beginning May 18 to Singapore, Malaysia and Australia to ‘‘inspect their world-class stadiums and games villages’’ with an aim to get a replica built at Hotwar village on the outskirts of Ranchi for the National Games.
The trip is believed to have been sponsored by Singapore-based Meinhardt-SAA-Loomba Associates, which the state government has appointed as its consultant for construction of the proposed modern state-of-the-art mega sports complex.
While the process to acquire land for the stadium and games village is yet to be completed, there are other problems which need to be sorted out by the government before it hosts the Games. When asked how the state government planned to tackle the power and drinking water shortage, bad roads, rising crime graph and unmanageable traffic before the Games, no government official was ready to offer an explanation.
But Secretary (Sports) N.N. Sinha and Director (Sports) Amitabh Choudhury, in a meeting held yesterday, announced the state government’s plan to appoint 5,000 volunteers to organise the event.
‘‘By the end of November, the selection of volunteers will be over,’’ said Madhukant Pathak, treasurer of the Jharkhand Olympic Association.
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NATIONAL GAMES 2007
CM goes on an 8-day trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Australia to ‘inspect stadiums, games villages’ |
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Last year, Choudhury had got thousands of posters put up across the city, inviting suggestions for a slogan for the event. ‘‘But the response was not good. We are in search of an alternative,’’ Choudhury said.
Munda’s predecessor Babulal Marandi, too, had during his tenure gone to Singapore and Malaysia to explore investment opportunities and look for a builder to work on the state’s new capital. But the state is yet to see any foreign investment, and the new capital is still to see the light of day.
