Authorities clear out Delhi’s poor

Homeless in Indian capital displaced as teams move into Commonwealth Games athletes’ village.

Work is continuing around the clock in New Delhi to meet the deadline for the completion of the athletes’ village for the Commonwealth Games. But as the teams move in, authorities are continuing to move out the city’s poor.

The games organisers solved the athletes’ accommodation dilemma by putting them up in hotels. To get the village up to par, extra money was spent on an army of labourers and cleaners working round the clock.

With just days to go, the focus for the organisers now moves towards the competition and India’s plans to stage an event that they hope will overshadow the chaos preceeding it.

The victims of the clean-up have largely been forgotten; the only thought is that they stay hidden away, so the visitors will remember the games and not the poverty surrounding it.

Al Jazeera’s Divya Gopalan reports from New Delhi.

Source: Al Jazeera