Commonwealth Plans Stolen from Police Station!

NEW Delhi's Commonwealth Games security plans have been stolen, plunging the event into further disarray.

Computers containing sensitive security information were stolen from the office of Delhi Police's Joint-Commissioner.

The theft is all the more embarrassing because the police compound housing the commissioner's office rarely has fewer than 500 officers in it.

Up to 100,000 people are expected to attend the Games, but organisers say there is a predicted shortfall of at least 14,000 hotel rooms.

New Delhi officials have approved the construction of 39 hotels in New Delhi, but work has started on only 19 so far.

It has led India to consider a New Delhi bed and breakfast scheme, with more than 300 homes and 800 rooms registered for guests in the past 18 months.

According to Joint-Commissioner JK Sharma's staff, five computer monitors and three central programming units were missing when the offices opened yesterday.

Joint-Commissioner Sharma said: "We have reported the matter to Malviya Nagar police station. Their officers have visited the office."

The computers reportedly stored important information concerning several Games projects, and had details of security plans for the Games.

The incident is yet another blow for the embattled Commonwealth Games, to be held in New Delhi from October 3-14 next year. That the security measures for commonwealth games in Delhi are lax, is exposed by the robbery of computers from a Police station.

Some Indian politicians and former athletes are deeply concerned over the lack of progress at several of the Games venues.

The loss of the security plans follows November's Mumbai terrorist atrocities and last week's attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan.

It is believed thieves broke in through a window to steal the computers.

Sri Lankan cricket coach Trevor Bayliss, a New South Welshman, has warned sports authorities on the subcontinent to be doubly careful.

"There are questions to be asked by the governing bodies of all sports," Bayliss told Indian media. "If cricket, which is the No. 1 sport on the subcontinent, can get hit, then any sport can . . . and especially any big sporting tournament."

Bayliss' concerns came as Games organisers said foreign visitors to New Delhi next year might be housed privately.

With lax security comes the possiblity of an Al-Queda attack on the Commonwealth games Venue, this I have discussed in a previous post.