Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living (AOL) today alleged that expert committee's report, regarding quantification of damage on Yamuna floodplains due to its cultural extravaganza, has been leaked to the media without serving them a copy.
"The report has been leaked to the media once again even as we were getting hold of our copy. This was expected of them as their malafide intentions to malign us has been evident since the beginning.
"The Expert Committee of the NGT who were supposed to be non-interested parties to the case and were to act as the eyes and ears of judges have given biased interviews in public while the case is sub-judice," AOL said.
The foundation said that the head of the NGT's seven- member expert committee, who was not even a technical person, noticed that the earlier figure of Rs 100-120 crore did not have any scientific basis and requested the Chairperson of NGT not to consider it.
"It is unprecedented that technical persons like Shri CR Babu, Shri AK Gosain and Shri Brij Gopal recommended an arbitrary figure without any scientific basis. Our legal team will have to study the basis of this new figure.
"How come Professor C R Babu who is one of the senior- most members of the Committee gave a media interview maligning The Art of Living by concluding that World Culture Festival had caused damage even before any assessment was done. This shows bias beyond doubt. The closeness of the petitioner with the Expert Committee members was not disclosed to us when the Expert Committee was appointed by NGT and went into the preparation of the report. They are caught in their own web of misdeeds," it said in a release.
Reacting to the report, the AOL foundation alleged that the findings of the panel are "biased".
"We have been victims of a conspiracy. And we will fight for the truth to come out. The Art of Living is a responsible and environment-sensitive NGO. We have never caused any damage to the environment but have in fact worked for preserving and reviving it through various environment-related projects over the years. Our legal team will study the report and decide on the appropriate future course of action," AOL spokesperson Kedar Desai said.
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