Guptas to pay Rs 8 lakh to clean up 275 quintals of wedding mess in Auli

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government has asked the NRI Gupta family to pay an amount of Rs 8 lakh to clean up 275 quintals of garbage that the family's grand weddings in Auli had generated.
The Joshimath municipal corporation, which is in charge of cleaning the meadows, said that at least three more days would be required to clean up the entire area.

Joshimath municipality president Shailendra Panwar told TOI, "Initially, we thought that two to three people would be enough to clear the entire garbage in around two days but after seeing the mounds, we have now deployed 20 people and four trucks to clear the area."

The garbage mostly consists of flowers, plastic bottles, polythene wrappers, and other decorative items which are being hand-lifted by the corporation workers. "It is a humongous task to clean up the mess at an altitude of over 3,000m. We are first segregating the waste and then putting them in bags before loading in the trucks. The functions for the weddings had begun on June 18 and the celebrations continued till June 22. Our teams are working here since the first day," a sanitation employee working at the site said over phone.


Panwar added that the Gupta brothers have also offered to donate a dumper which would cost around Rs 12 lakh.

Meanwhile, Chamoli district administration is preparing an exhaustive report on the weddings for which it had used a hi-tech drone for the first time. "The drone recorded every detail of the weddings and on its basis, a comprehensive report would be submitted to the Uttarakhand high court on July 8," said a senior district administration official.

Earlier, on June 18, the Nainital high court had said that the Chamoli district magistrate will be held accountable for compliance of the court's order to minimise environmental damages caused due to the high-profile weddings in Auli. The court had also asked the Gupta family to deposit Rs 3 crore to be used to restore the area after events were over.