NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India are scrambling against the clock to save the Commonwealth Games after big ticket athletes quit the showcase event and nations threatened to stay home unless authorities cleaned venues “unfit for human habitation”.

Scotland delayed its departure to New Delhi and Wales gave organisers until late yesterday to guarantee that the venues and athletes’ village are safe. The New Zealand swimming team are seeking a “Plan B” should the event be cancelled.

Bermuda are planning to send 14 athletes and several officials with Bermuda Olympic Association president Judy Simons stating on Tuesday that she had no plans to pull out.

Commonwealth Games Federation president Michael Fennell, who said the two-week event suffered from filthy conditions, will arrive today for a probable meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In the next few days thousands of athletes will start arriving for the October 3 start.

India had hoped to use the $6 billion Games, held every four years for members of the former British Empire, as a display of its growing global economic and political clout rivalling China.

Instead, the Games have descended into farce with some countries giving organisers an ultimatum of a few days to get everything ready or face the prospect of national withdrawals from an event which is so far only showcasing Indian traveller-tale cliches of filth, chaos and corruption.

“Officials found that building works had fallen seriously behind schedule and that its allocated accommodation blocks were far from finished and in their view, unsafe and unfit for human habitation,” Team Scotland said in a statement.

A portion of false ceiling in the weightlifting venue caved in yesterday, a day after the collapse of a footbridge by the main stadium injured 27 workers, highlighting the problems facing organisers as they race to complete work.

Nobody was injured at the weightlifting venue.

“There have been dogs roaming around the village, the apartments are filthy, there are piles of rubble and right now it’s not fit to receive 6,500 athletes and officials,” Michael Cavanagh, chairman of Commonwealth Games Scotland, told the BBC.

“National Shame” was the headline in one Indian newspaper.

New Zealand’s swimming team left yesterday for Abu Dhabi, with an official saying another competition was in the pipeline if the Games are cancelled. Australian and Canadian squads are in Singapore and the British in Doha, suggesting another Asian meet could be hastily organised.

There have been reports of stray dogs, stagnant water, workers urinating in public, and human faeces being found at the unfinished village where the athletes will live.

Stagnant pools of water, breeding grounds for dengue mosquitoes, lie around and a Reuters reporter said homeless people were living outside the main stadium.

Indian government officials say the problems, including the roof collapse on Wednesday, are mostly minor glitches and the Games will be a success.

But criticism is mounting even within India, where the country’s leadership is seen as out-of-touch and having failed to understand what is expected of a nation which is not short of funds nor skilled labour to host a major sporting event.

It also highlights concerns about how India will effectively spend some $1.5 trillion on infrastructure over the next decade which is fundamental to managing fast economic growth and a growing population of 1.2 billion.