: A day after it came down heavily on the Art of Living Foundation for “frustrating the law” by delaying the handing over and inspection of the eco-sensitive site on the Yamuna floodplains used to host the three-day World Cultural Festival in March, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) reserved its order in the matter on Friday.
The Foundation counsel has sought to be part of the court-appointed committee for inspecting the site. It has also wanted more time to pay Rs. 4.75 crore of the remaining compensation imposed on the Foundation. It had paid Rs. 25 lakh a day before the festival started.
On March 9, the green court had imposed an initial ‘environmental compensation’ of Rs. 5 crore on the Foundation.
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The rest of the fine amount, the court said, would be decided after the committee assessed the damage caused to the floodplains.
The Counsel appearing for Art of Living had earlier told the Bench that cleaning operations at the site were still on when the committee arrived for inspection on April 15, and that the Foundation handed it over to the DDA only on April 18.
On April 4, the head of the expert committee, Shashi Shekar (Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources), had written to NGT stating that inspection could be carried out only when the land had been vacated. Following this, the Foundation had assured the court that the land would be vacated, and that the committee would be able to visit the site and present its report to the Bench before April 21.
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Meanwhile, the activists who had filed a case against holding the function at the site maintained that the Art of Living Foundation was going against the promise it had made in court.