Ranchi, March 8: The 34th National Games to be hosted by Jharkhand is, officially, just nine months away. But it is most certainly not going to be held in November this year, which is just as well; simply because Ranchi is just not ready to host the event.

After bidding successfully for the 2007 Games way back in 2003, the state frittered away three years in planning and awarding contracts. And it is only now, after having seen first hand the Games at Guwahati, that Jharkhand Olympic Association ( JOA) officials are breaking out in a cold sweat.

Fifteen thousand people and volunteers slogged for two years to make arrangements at Guwahati, confided an official on his return after attending the 33rd Games. “But here we do not yet have the organising committee,” he exclaimed.

JOA office-bearers are worried because despite the stupendous effort, time and money spent by the Assam government, the 33rd National Games at Guwahati were marked by glitches. “There was plenty of confusion and there were lapses,” recall officials who attended the Games at Guwahati, shuddering at the thought of what might happen here.

The Games Village , they felt, was good enough but arrangements for cleaning up the complex were inadequ- ate — and within a couple of days, a stink enveloped the village. The foul smell sent people scurrying for cover.

Transport arrangements also collapsed at Guwahati, although the organisers had arranged for a fairly large number of vehicles. After the opening ceremoney, at least 2,000 athletes and officials had to walk back to the Games Village, they recalled.

While the organisers worked very hard at Guwahati, centralised accreditation meant people had to wait for long hours, some had to wait for the whole day, before they could register. Without the registration, they could not move into the Games Village.

Though the dining space was large enough, organisers erred in having only 16 food-stalls, which could not cope with 6,000-8,000 people turning up for food at the same time. Some of the players and athletes could not afford to wait for a long time at the food-stall and in any case, it caused complete chaos.

It was a good learning experience for the Jharkhand contingent. They noticed, for example, that the exit of school children from the stadium was so excruciatingly slow that there were uncomfortable gaps between items at the opening ceremony.

While Assam procured sophisticated electronic equipment like scoreboards, and spent crores of rupees on them, they failed to work during the Games. Obviously they had been installed late and there were few people trained to handle them. Indeed, there was nobody to man the scoreboard during the hockey matches, JOA officials asserted.

But with time running out, there is a high probability of Jharkhand offering more confusion and glitches.