Glasgow, the venue of the XX Commonwealth Games, will not do a Delhi when it comes to the poor living in the city, assures Robert Smith, head of the CWG Glasgow 2014.

Delhi cleared nearly 350 slums and remanded most of its destitutes in beggar homes in a bid to hide its poor before the Games. Some immigrants were even forced to go back home, most of them being construction workers who had built stadia, roads and flyovers for CWG.

“Glasgow will not fail its poor,” Smith, a peer and the chair of Glasgow 2014, told Governance Now in an exclusive chat.

“There is poverty around Glasgow and we want to see better housing and better infrastructure over there along with the games preparation,”

He added that once the games are over in 2014, the legacy would be to give underprivileged people better lives in Glasgow and surrounding areas.

“We need to secure that legacy and are working towards achieving it,” Smith added.

Dalmarnock, in Glasgow’s east end area, has the unenviable reputation of housing UK's most deprived communities.

“We have to build the athletes village, which will end up as affordable houses for poor people of the east end of Glasgow,” Smith commented on how his government planning for inclusive growth even as it redies itself to host the sporting event.

“I am very strong on governance because I come from the private sector. We have already set up audit committee, risk committee, athletes committee, communeration committee so that is run like a proper business while giving benefits to the local people and proper governance is in place,” he said.

Glasgow is ready with 70 pc of the infrastructure it needs for the games though they are a little over four years away.

Smith’s mantra is ‘If you build it, they will come.’ He also hoped that there will be significant changes in Delhi’s infrastructure once the games end on October 14.

“If you have facilities people would use the facilities. It should serve as a catalyst for growth. India is a very fast growing economy and I think it will help India grow,”

He is on a ten-day visit to India for lessons in organising the games and learn from Delhi's mistakes.

“We can learn from Delhi’s experience,” Smith added but did not comment on the chaos in Delhi before the games.