The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Military Games remain elusive for common public

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Military Games remain elusive for common public

V V Subrahmanyam

Only those with valid entry passes allowed

- PHOTO: P. V. SIVAKUMAR

Sorry sight: Empty stands greet visitors at the ongoing Military World Games.

HYDERABAD: Where are the crowds? The biggest sporting spectacle ever in India in terms of number of participation of countries – 4th Military World Games – seems to be effectively out of bounds for the common sports lovers. Empty stands at all the venues on the first day were symbolic of this.

Reason? There is no free entry for anyone unless they are equipped with the valid entry passes issued by the Canara Bank through its different branches.

What stopped the organisers from setting up counters to issue passes for instance at Gachibowli complex hosting athletics, swimming and boxing, asks Baseti Shiva Prasad, a sports enthusiast on being turned back from the venue for want of a pass.

And compounding the few lucky ones who managed them are the high security measures both in the vicinity and inside these venues.

Stumbling block

So is the case of lensmen inside the athletics stadium where the army personnel are preventing them from taking action photographs from vantage positions.

No doubt they have a major task on hand – to ensure total safety of the participants during the Games.

But sports lovers question when there are plenty of options like allowing them an hour before any scheduled event by taking necessary precautions instead of a blanket ban on all of them for coming directly to the venues.

APOA vice-president K.Ranga Rao says that only three passes to APOA officials and one each to the 11 Associations (whose disciplines are competition events) are issued. To cap it all, a senior official in the Press Information Bureau got an accreditation card of a volunteer!

And inside the stadia, one wonders what the designated roles of the volunteers are! For at swimming and boxing venues, they gave an impression as if they were also there to watch the proceedings and not do their job even in providing basic information about the schedule of events and availability of results.

The first day stands proof of why 2003 Afro-Asian Games was such a roaring success.

Even thousands of Hyderabadis, not necessarily sports-lovers, were there at most of the venues because of free access and thereby ensured a festive mood right through. Will the organisers make due amends for the good of the city’s sports-lovers?

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