The Business Standard website carries an interesting piece, "I won't pay fine, ready to go to jail, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar tells NDTV". It seems Ravi Shankar's Art of Living foundation was not willing to pay the fine of Rs 5 crore imposed on it by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for holding a three-day World Culture Festival on the Yamuna floodplains, considered an ecologically sensitive area.
For the record, a committee appointed by the NGT had estimated the cost of restoration of the floodplains after the event at Rs 100-120 crore, but the NGT has fined Art of Living for only Rs 5 crore. The substantially less fine is proof that the event would cause nominal environmental damage.
Read more from our special coverage on "SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR"
- SC junks plea seeking to stop Art Of Livings World Culture Festival
- I wont pay fine, ready to go to jail, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar tells NDTV
- Army unhappy with festival duty
- Environment ministry fails to file affidavit at NGT in the Art of Living case
- Appeal to all parties to not politicize event: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
The dispute seems to have political overtones. An Opposition party might have sponsored the petition to prevent the event from taking place. The reasons are obvious. The party probably thought that the government at the Centre would get a lot of mileage from the mega event. With five states up for Assembly elections, the party feared it would be wiped out unless it did something like this.
K V Rao Bengaluru
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