People work at the site of World Culture festival organised by Indian guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art Of Living foundation on the flood plain of Yamuna River in New Delhi. (Photo: AP)
People work at the site of World Culture festival organised by Indian guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art Of Living foundation on the flood plain of Yamuna River in New Delhi. (Photo: AP)
The AAP government seems to be in a fix as to whether it should release Rs 53 lakh to the Art of Living for setting up toilets, dustbins and deployment of volunteers during its three-day World Cultural Festival beginning March 11 in the national capital. The group had earlier written a letter to the Centre seeking release of funds from the Swachchh Bharat fund for providing basic civic amenities during the festival.
The Centre reportedly forwarded the Art of Living request to the AAP government to take a final call on the matter. The group had requested for Rs 53 lakh to set up 500 toilets, 9,000 dustbins and for deployment of 1,500 volunteers for the mega-event. The Art of Living communication said that each toilet would cost it about Rs 9,000.
The event slated to take place on the west bank of Yamuna floodplain near DND Flyover, has been organised to celebrate 35 years of the Art of Living. It is expected to attract about 35 lakh people.
Earlier, intelligence agencies had advised the organisers to ensure that there are proper arrangements for the entry and dispersal of the participants. The agencies had suggested that entry and exit routes should be well regimented. A highly-placed source said that the organisers had been told to use extensive high power cabling after getting approval from the competent authorities.
The organisers had also been told to use two pontoon bridges for the exit of the participants in the function, to be held from March 11-13, so as to avoid any untoward incidents like stampede etc. They have also been asked to put up wire-meshing along the bridges to negate the possibility of any invitee falling inadvertently into the Yamuna.
Taking cognisance of the tendency among the participants at the event to leave as early as possible, organisers of the event have been asked to avail optimum use of these two pontoon bridges on conclusion of the event and also to bar the entry of outsiders at the termination of the function. Besides, the group has been asked to reserve the bridges for exiting crowd half-an-hour before the conclusion of the event on each day. The source said that no fireworks will be allowed at the venue and the organisers have been briefed accordingly.
Besides strict security measures, parking spaces of vehicles are also being monitored and the vehicles coming from trans-Yamuna area would be allowed to enter through Gate Number 10, 11, 12 and 13. The number of vehicles gaining entry through these gates will be restricted exactly to the availability of the proper parking space.
A large number of electricity-operated systems are also being installed at the venue involving extensive high power cabling and the same will be checked by competent authorities to cancel out any electrical or fire hazard. In case of any medical contingency, the evacuation drill is being planned to use gates on DND side for the evacuation of those people who are present on the same side. Besides, gate number 10-13 will be used as medical contingency exit for the spillover crowd watching the proceedings on LED screens across the Yamuna.
