Cops prepare status report, list shortcomings in arrangements

A day before the controversy-ridden World Culture Festival kicks off, Delhi Police on Thursday prepared a status report and listed several shortcomings in the arrangements for the mega event that is being organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living foundation.

Security arrangements for the event were heightened on Thursday with all 11 police districts and several specialised units roped in amidst an uncertainty regarding the total footfall which the three-day event would witness. Police are also charting out a traffic plan to make sure that arterial roads in the national capital are not clogged during the event. Police on Thursday again inspected the venue and prepared a status report that was submitted to a Joint Secretary-rank official in charge of supervising the security arrangements, a senior official said. A lack of direction boards, no fencing on the path leading to the venue, especially from Gates Nos 10, 11, which are to be opened for general public, and inadequate CCTV cameras are some of the shortcomings listed in the status report, the official said, adding these matters have been communicated to the organisers. The report contains dozens of photographs of the site for the event on the Yamuna floodplains and also highlights the absence of fencing and barricading on the pontoon bridges (floating bridges) constructed there despite several reminders to the organisers, the senior official said.