Hindustan Times
October 7, 2010
Page 3, New Delhi
They came, they ate, they littered and they left.
Several spectators who came to the 102-acre Indira Gandhi stadium to watch wrestling, cycling and gymnastics treated the stadium as a big, open dustbin and threw around cola bottles, burger wraps and poly-bags wherever they could find space.
They chose to ignore the dustbins that were placed at every five metres.
Some people even trampled on the grass within the showpiece tree guards. The sanitation staff was seen cleaning the mess every half an hour.
"We are not allowed to take any kind of food items and water bottles inside the competition venue. I have children with me, so they cannot sit empty stomach till the events are over. We decided to buy food from the counter and eat here," said Ramesh Kumar, who had come from Rohini with his family of seven.
When asked why they were littering the area when there were plenty of dustbins around and one right next to him, Kumar said, "Well, there are people around who have been hired to clean this place, it's not a big deal."
A sanitation staff deployed at the stadium complained that despite dustbins being placed, the people chose to throw the waste around.
"We work here in eight hour shifts. Every half an hour we have to collect the garbage that is all over the stadium. The dustbins are almost empty," said Harish Kumar, a sanitations staff of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
The Fast Trax counters that sold food and beverages saw huge queues as people grabbed knick-knacks before they entered the competition areas.
A day after the opening ceremony at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the MCD had collected 20,000 kg garbage that was generated in eight hours.
The authorities have place 500 bins all over the stadium.
