AOL: Notice to Centre, AAP govt on plea challenging NGT ambit
18 Jan 2017 6:00 AM IST
The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday faced a piquant situation, prompting it to seek an answer to whether holding of religious and cultural events like the controversial cultural extravaganza organised last year by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living (AOL) can be prohibited by bringing it under the umbrella of the environment laws.
The NGT sought responses from the Centre and AAP government, as a supporter of the AoL event challenged the jurisdiction of the tribunal to decide the issue of damage to the floodplains of Yamuna caused by the holding of three-day cultural festival in March last year. The move came days after the green panel directed an expert committee to quantify tentative cost of rejuvenating Yamuna riverbed, damaged due to the festival. The seven-member principal committee had said the AoL’s World Culture Festival had “completely destroyed” the riverbed.
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