NGT seeks government reply on AoL claim

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday directed the AAP government, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Delhi Metro to respond to the claim made by the Art of Living foundation that debris on the Yamuna banks existed prior to its three-day cultural extravaganza held last year.

The green panel asked the agencies to make submissions in the regard, stating the extent of debris removed by each of these authorities. The observation came after the lawyer for the the Art of Living (AoL) foundation of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar told the green panel that the debris already existed on the site before the event and the condition of floodplains was “pathetic” and “highly polluted”.

The AoL had contended that the event site was not an identified floodplain even after NGT’s 2015 direction to the authorities to demarcate the floodplain, and hence it cannot even be considered a floodplain.

The AoL’s contention came in the backdrop of an expert committee earlier telling the NGT that a whopping '42.02 crore would be required to restore Yamuna floodplains, which was ravaged due to the AoL cultural extravaganza.

“In any event, there is no prohibition whatsoever on conducting cultural activities on floodplains. Even according to the reports of the principal committee submitted to this tribunal, which form an integral part of the judgement dated January 13, 2015, conducting of cultural activities on floodplains is not prohibited.

“Having obtained all required approvals from all relevant statutory authorities, Respondent No. 3 (AoL) has not violated any law or regulation by holding the festival at the event site or carried out any activity which has led to any pollution,” it claimed.

AoL told the bench that the contention of the committee that compaction has been caused by the World Culture Festival organised by it was “erroneous and untenable” as the panel has not conducted any scientific test or geotechnical investigation of the soil density of the land.