Panel trying to mislead' NGT over damage: AoL
The case relates to the AoL holding a cultural extravaganza called the World Culture Festival from March 11-13 last year.
New Delhi: The Art of Living (AoL) on Monday challenged the report on the damage caused to the Yamuna floodplains, filed by an expert committee appointed by the NGT.
The foundation, headed by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, alleged that the committee had tried to “distort and mislead” the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the damage caused to the Yamuna floodplains.
The AoL told a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar that there has been “complete non-application of mind” by the expert panel which has filed the report “without any evidence” and has gone beyond its jurisdiction to recommend rehabilitation of the floodplains
The case relates to the AoL holding a cultural extravaganza called the World Culture Festival from March 11-13 last year.
Raising doubts over the satellite images used by the committee to estimate the damage, advocate Nikhil Sakhardande, appearing for AoL, said the expert committee report was based on a single satellite image dated September 5, 2015, taken during the peak monsoon season to show that wetlands existed on the event site.
“This is distortion of facts to deliberately mislead the tribunal. Rainfall statistics for the year 2015 clearly show the satellite image is a depiction of ground conditions saturated due to the monsoon, which was abnormally high.”