CWG-fiasco in mind, Delhi now wants to cancel Asian athletics event

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: With less than two months left before the 20th Asian Athletics Championship, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Tejendra Khanna has asked the chief minister’s office to ‘reconsider’ its decision to host the event in New Delhi. The request came in view of the utter failure to organise Commonwealth Games properly in 2010 which had left the entire country red faced. The event, which is scheduled to be held in the first week of July in the capital, was initially slated to be organised in Chennai but it was shifted to Delhi following Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha’s opposition to the participation of Sri Lankan athletes in the event. A leading newspaper reported that Khanna has asked the CM’s office to review its decision to organise the event as it coincides with the monsoon, which would hamper the event and would "result in a poor picture of the country and its infrastructure being projected". It was also learnt that the Delhi government is in a dilemma to organise the event after the letter from the Lieutenant Government. If Delhi finally rejects to host the event the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) could shift the event either to Pune or Bangalore.