Rs 120cr fine on Art of Living Foundation had no scientific basis: NGT

NEW DELHI: An expert panel of the National Green Tribunal told the environment court that the Rs 120 crore penalty it recommended against Art of Living Foundation for holding its World Culture Festival on the Yamuna floodplains in March had no scientific basis.
“It was not based on any scientific assessment,“ wrote Shashi Shekhar, water resources secretary, who headed the panel.Shekhar described the estimate that Rs 120 crore would be needed to repair the likely damage as “tentative“ and a “spontaneous suggestion“, which got elevated as a “recommendation“ because of an “inadvertent mistake“. This inadvertent mistake was largely due to the fact that I was running high fever and could not see the entire report prepared by the experts,“ Shashi Shekhar, head of an NGT panel, wrote to the environment court.
Significantly , Shekhar wrote this letter to the NGT on March 3, eight days before the AOL event got under way .
The panel, comprising experts and environmentalists C R Babu, A K Gosain and Brij Gopal, had submitted its report to NGT on February 22.
Clarifying the stand, Shekhar had said while members of the panel did discuss imposition of Rs 120 crore penalty on the AOL, he did not endorse the experts' view (on the amount) and had, instead, suggested that the organiser must restore the Yamuna floodplains after the festival, with the experts assessing the cost of the repair job.
In his letter to the NGT chairman, the water resources secretary wrote, “I had not endorsed the view (putting a fine of Rs 120 crore on AOL) and, instead, suggested that after the festival is over, the organizer must restore the Yamuna floodplain, the cost of which is to be scientifically assessed and the restoration should take place under the supervision of the committee as constituted by NGT. Rs 120 crore as assessed by experts was tentative and the figure emerged as a spontaneous suggestion. It was not based on any scientific assessment.
“The entire idea was to ensure that the Yamuna floodplain is restored to the original condition and the organiser must bear the cost which should be assessed by experts.“
Shekhar suggested that the NGT consider “this view as the recommendation rather than the ad hoc figure of Rs 120 crore as the cost of restoration which did not have any scientific basis“.
The AOL has disputed the recommendation and has asked the NGT to set up a new panel of experts to examine whether the World Culture Festival resulted in damage to the Yamuna floodplains.
Environmentalists had protested AOL's event and approached the green court demanding cancellation of the festival. Though the NGT had refused to stay the event at that stage citing time constraint, it fined the organisation Rs 5 crore for `environmental damage', saying a final amount would be decided by a courtappointed `principal committee'. The NGT had, during the hearing, also said the fine was an interim one and its panel had suggested a much higher amount (Rs 120 crore) to be recovered from AOL.