A peek into what the international press is saying about the Commonwealth Games in the Capital and the recent Maoist attacks
A countdown clock outside the Commonwealth Games offices in New Delhi shows 192 days left until the Indian capital hosts the 17-sport event. But the city still looks like a messy construction site. The main stadium is months overdue and remains a tangle of cranes, and residents are furious over new taxes to pay for the Games.
Meanwhile, dozens of construction workers have died and hundreds of thousands are laboring in unsafe conditions in the rush to prepare the city for the Games, a court-appointed investigation said. India hoped that by hosting athletes from the 71 countries of the Commonwealth, the former British Empire, it would boost its global image and become a contender for the Olympics. Now, with the October-3 start date approaching, many are wondering whether it's worth it.
Children are slaving away at work on building sites in New Delhi as the Indian capital struggles to get ready for this year's Commonwealth Games.
Parents have been promised bonuses, such as money for bread and milk, on top of their normal pay, if they bring their children and put them to work. The building drive comes amid major concerns the city will not be ready to hold the Games when they fall due in October, with major sporting and transport infrastructure still not ready.
Struggling to hold up shovels, which are as tall as they are, the children are helping to build drainage works in front of the $1.8-billion Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, where the opening and closing ceremonies for the Games and the athletics events will be held.
At least 75 paramilitary policemen were killed in a dawn ambush by Maoist rebels in thick forest in central India today. The loss was one of the worst in a single attack by the insurgents in many years and highlights the increasingly serious problem extremist leftwing violence poses to the country.
Several hundred fighters from the Communist party of India (Maoist) appeared to have used mines and small arms against a unit of 120 men from the central reserve police force.
The force was taking part in a months-long operation in the central state of Chhattisgarh aimed at re-establishing state authority in thousands of square miles of territory now under the sway of the insurgents. This year has seen a series of such attacks though the latest is by far the most ambitious and deadly.
The harsh fact is that a third of the country's districts are now fighting insurgencies, and unless more of India's citizens get a sense of belonging to their "shining," "incredible" country as the PR disciples would have it there are fears that the violence may increase substantially.
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With Thanks : source : Indianexpress
