Sri Sri event over but it will take more than a month to get the site back in order

The World Culture Festival (WCF) aimed to bring back the green cover of the floodplain has left behind it heaps of garbage and stink with hardly any Art of Living (AoL) volunteers around surveying the cleanup of the area. It was also found that the volunteers had little or no clue as to where the garbage would be dumped.

Huge heaps of garbage, empty water bottles and food containers were lying on the carpets. A host of Sri Sri University pamphlets, matrimonial pamphlets are lying carelessly with thin number of volunteers monitoring the site. Among other things, the stage is likely to take the longest to be dismantled. Besides the designated team of workers, a host of child rag pickers were seen collecting garbage from the site.

“It will take around three weeks to clean up the entire mess. We have engaged volunteers and trying to do our bit. We have outsourced the work to a contractor to get the work done at the soonest,” said a volunteer of Art of Living Foundation.

The work to dismantle the giant stage and the seating arrangement for the audience has begun on a slow pace. With hardly five volunteers from Art of Living present at the site and cleanup work being outsourced to a private contractor, it will take more than a month to get the previous picture of the site back.

According to the official spokesperson of AoL foundation, the dismantling of the temporary structure can take more than three weeks. While being asked about how much waste has been generated in the three days, Anita Dandiya, a volunteer of AoL said: “I cannot say how much waste solid has been generated but we are in the process of cleaning the venue.”

The spokesperson said: “Our volunteers are working on the venue. As it was a mass gathering, it can take time,” said the spokesperson.

On asking where the garbage would be dumped the official said they have no clue about it, moreover, they were also not aware about the installations of noise and air pollution measuring instruments on the site and do not have even the idea about preparing videos of the event on a daily basis which was directed to the organisers by Delhi Pollution Control Board (DPCC).