#NewDelhi : Confidential letter by a Senior bureaucrat has triggered a new controversy in the Art of Living ,case over allegations that its festival had damaged the Yamuna floodplains.Shashi Shekhar, secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, wrote to Justice Swatanter Kumar, chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that the most crucial suggestion of Rs 120-crore penalty imposed on AOL by the committee set up by the tribunal “inadvertently got recommended”.
Worse, he even said the recommendation had no scientific basis and that he missed looking into it because he had high fever.
In his letter, dated 3 March, 2016, Shekhar said, “This inadvertent mistake was largely due to the fact that I was running high fever and I could not see the entire report prepared by the experts. Though I do not deny that this issue was not discussed, in fact, it was discussed to impose a penalty of Rs 120 crore for restoration of Yamuna foodplain. I had not endorsed that view and instead suggested that after the festival was over, the organiser must restore the Yamuna floodplain, the cost of which to be scientifically assessed by the experts and the restoration should take place under under the supervision by the committee constituted by the Hon’ble NGT. Rs 120 crore as assessed by the experts was tentative and emerged as a spontaneous suggestion. It was not based on any scientific assessment.”
Shekhar wrote that 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 the experts.
And then he concludes: “May I request that the NGT may consider this view was the recommendation rather than an ad hoc figure of Rs 120 crore as cost of restoration which do not have any scientific basis.” According to media reports,
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