Shillong, Nov. 4: The South Asian Games will bring together eight neighbouring countries, not necessarily friendly ones, but tension is already building up, thanks to a faulty map.

Outside the Games secretariat here is a large banner with the words 12th South Asian Games 2016 Games Secretariat superimposed on a map of the eight participating nations. The map of India, however, is faulty: Jammu and Kashmir is contoured differently, with the area of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir shown as a part of Pakistan. Aksai Chin, however, is shown as a part of India, although it is occupied by China.

When approached, director of sports and youth affairs, F.M. Dopth, said officials had noticed the error. "We have asked them (the vendor) to remove the banner and replace the banner with one without a map," Dopth said over phone.

However, the change had not been made till this afternoon.

Although the Line of Control is the de-facto border between India and Pakistan, the Indian government takes a strong line on the issue.

Last year, a government employee in Bihar was suspended and an engineer served a showcause notice because of a map that did not show all of Jammu and Kashmir as a part of India.

Similarly, in April this year, Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera was taken off the air for five days by the Union ministry of information and broadcasting for repeatedly showing PoK and Aksai Chin as not being a part of India.

In the past, The Economist has also had its maps of India blanked out by the authorities because it chooses to show the India-Pakistan-China border as it stands on the ground, rather than what India claims.

Guwahati and Shillong will jointly host the 2016 edition of the Games, and Union minister of youth affairs and sports Sarbananda Sonowal officially opened the Games secretariat here last week.

The organising committee has designated competent local and national organisers as tournament managers for the Games, a staff reporter adds from Guwahati. In a meeting held in Guwahati last evening, the organising committee assigned the managers for arranging all logistic and infrastructure for their respective disciplines.

On the other hand, repair and renovation of the infrastructure in Guwahati as well as Shillong has started on a war footing to meet the January 2016 deadline for completion. Guwahati will have a new squash complex, which was not there for the 33rd National Games in 2007. The Assam government is implementing a repair and renovation project from the Rs 19.5 crore released by the Centre for the Games.

Guwahati will host 16 disciplines while Shillong will organise seven.