Indian PM in crisis talks about Commonwealth Games

With just ten days to go before the competition, India’s prime minister has convened a crisis meeting to discuss the Commonwealth Games as workers race against the clock to finish the facilities in New Delhi.

India’s PM Manmohan Singh has summoned top ministers for a crisis meeting as more teams delayed departure for the Commonwealth Games in the Indian capital.

The meeting comes two days after international delegates slammed the facilities as "filthy and uninhabitable".

Canadian officials are considering pulling out of the Games. According to CBC network, Canada's archers were the first to pull out of the Games on Wednesday.

On Thursday, New Zealand’s Games chief dealt another blow to Indian officials when he suggested the Commonwealth Games needed to be scaled back in the wake of the problems in New Delhi.

“There does need to be some reality about the nature of the facilities required, otherwise not only emerging countries will struggle to hold them, any country will,” he told reporters.

Some 700 cleaners have been pressed into action to scrub the residential blocks of the much-maligned athletes’ village, the Times of India reported.

Apart from allegations of corruption and inefficiency, the holding of the Games were thrown into doubt after the collapse of a footbridge near the main Nehru stadium of the event on Monday.