Why nobody cleaned CWG mess

Mumbai-based housekeeping agency was formally supposed to take charge of the Games Village only when the Games started on October 3

The latest skeleton crawling out of the CWG cupboard of fiascoes raised a lot of stink, literally, when delegates from participating countries were welcomed at the Games Village by muck, dogs, and faeces at the Village units.

Now we know why such squalor greeted them. There was no housekeeping in attendance at the Village apartments.


These pictures of the toilets at the CommonWealth Games Village has disgusted the world media

The housekeeping agency contracted for the Village, a Mumbai-based firm called Kalpataru Hospitality Services, says it was formally supposed to take charge of the place only on October 3, when the games actually commence.

According to a source, the agency's contract stated that they could start from August 16, if all the buildings were ready and were handed over to them. But they were not, says Kalpataru's director, Sujata Hegde.

"The buildings were not ready for us to take over. Work was going on when the delegates came. The whole mess was the doing of the ongoing construction work and workers," Hegde claims.

The contract formally mentions that October 3 is when they were actually supposed to get cracking, as that is when the Games officially begin.
u00a0
This means there was no one to take care of the apartments at the Village when the delegates visited.



Hegde said, "We were supposed to formally enter the Commonwealth Games Village only on October 3. Our works starts then. Until that time, everything is in the hands of the people constructing the buildings."

However, now the agency has dispatched a team to the CWG venue and the work has begun. At least, this is what Lalit Bhanot, the official spokesperson for CWG, said.

"The housekeeping staff has arrived and is working with us hereon. The scene was messy before because of heavy rains and the ensuing muck. It was bound to get dirty," said Bhanot.

When asked about the dogs and faeces incident, Bhanot said, "I do not know of any such thing. The situation is under control now and things are going fine."