President Pranab Mukherjee will skip the three-day cultural festival being organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of living Foundation after mounting controversy over holding of the extravaganza on the Yamuna floodplain beginning on Friday.
A senior Rashtrapati Bhavan official said, “The President cannot attend the function due to unavoidable circumstances.” The President had earlier agreed to attend the valedictory ceremony.
While the organisers expect lakhs of people to attend the event, concerns have been raised by experts and environmentalists about the likely damage to the environment caused by holding it on the floodplain of the already polluted river in East Delhi.
The Art of living foundation, which is organising the function, will have yoga and meditation sessions, peace prayers by Sanskrit scholars and traditional cultural performances from around the world.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) is hearing a petition which has claimed that the organisers will release “enzymes” into 17 drains that flow into the Yamuna for cleaning the river. The NGT is likely to pass a judgment in the matter on Tuesday.
The three-day event will be held from March 11-13 on the west bank of Yamuna to celebrate 35 years of The Art of living foundation.
“This proposed activity would be in blatant violation of the provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, since it is, basically, introducing foreign elements into the river, without any scientific study or information,” the pending petition before the NGT claimed.
Earlier, the green panel had issued notices to the Delhi Government, Delhi Development Authority and Art of living Foundation on another plea seeking stoppage of ongoing construction work on the flood plains.
It had also constituted an expert committee headed by Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar to inspect the site of the proposed festival.