The world discus champion Dani Samuels (Australia) has joined a long list of stars to pull out of the Commonwealth Games. His plea: It’s enough to worry about performing, worrying about where to sleep and walk is another thing.

As if this is not bad enough, on Tuesday the foot bridge leading to the main stadium collapsed injuring 27 workers. Work on the bridge was entrusted to a Chandigarh-based company for Rs 10.34 crore. The collapse of the bridge which was meant exclusively for athletes has heightened concerns about the safety of infrastructure being created at breakneck speed. Things can’t get worse that this. Most countries use international sport meets to showcase their national prowess and make a global statement. The Indian government has put on display corruption and inefficiency. Now the whole world can see that we build bridges that collapse. The alarm bells were sounded long back but the Union government chose to act like an ostrich and bury its head. Apart from setting up committees nothing more was done to put preparations for the Games on the fast track. As of now, only 18 of the 34 towers in the Games Village are completed. The New Zealand team had to call in cleaning staff from the embassy while the Scots did the cleaning themselves. The Games are barely ten days away and there is no real hope of everything being in place when they begin. Security was a concern, but now it seems collapsing infrastructure has taken centrestage. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dixit and Organising Committee Chief, Mr Suresh Kalmadi have reduced us, a country aspiring to superpower status, to sub-Saharan levels. What a shame! When the Games are over, that is, if they start without any more disgraceful incidents, the Union government owes the people of India a thorough inquiry. Heads must roll so that we can at least regain something of the pride by showing to the world that we know how to give exemplary punishment to rogues and bad managers.