President not to attend Sri Sri's cultural extravaganza

March 7, 2016

New Delhi, Mar 7: President Pranab Mukherjee will not attend a festival being organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of Art of Living in the wake of the controversy over holding the three-day cultural function on the Yamuna flood plains beginning here this Friday.pranab

"The President cannot attend the function due to unavoidable circumstances," an official of the Rashtrapati Bhavan said here today.

Mukherjee had earlier agreed to attend the valedictory ceremony on Sunday.

While the organisers expect lakhs of people to attend the function, concerns have been raised by experts about the likely damage to the environment caused by holding it on the flood plains 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, which looks after the environmental issues, is hearing a petition which has claimed the organisers will release 'enzymes' into 17 drains that flow into the Yamuna for cleaning the river. A judgement is expected tomorrow.

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 petition said.

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.

Comments

Abu Muhammad
 - 
Monday, 7 Mar 2016

What about the case filed in Bangalore for grabbing private land by Art of LOOTING Foundation. After Fattinga's Patanjali now art of cheating's meditation. Don't we have any developmental issues in the country?

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News Network
July 12,2020

New Delhi, Jul 12: With the highest single-day spike of 28,637 new cases and 551 deaths being reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 8,49,553 on Sunday.

According to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, this includes 2,92,258 active cases, and 5,34,621 cured and discharged or migrated patients. The toll due to the disease has reached 22,674 in the country.

Maharashtra with 2,46,600 cases continues to be the worst affected state by COVID-19 in the country. The state has 99,499 active cases while 1,36,985 patients have been cured and discharged so far. The death toll due to the disease now stands at 10,116.

Tamil Nadu with 1,34,226 cases, including 46,413 active ones, is the next worst affected in the country. While the number of cured and discharged patients is at 85,915 in the state, the toll due to the disease is at 1,898.

The national capital has recorded 1,10,921 confirmed cases so far. However, the number of active cases in Delhi is at 19,895 and 87,692 patients have been cured and discharged so far. With 3,334 deaths being reported due to COVID-19 in the city. 

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News Network
June 13,2020

New Delhi, June 13: A quarantine notice pasted outside former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 3, Motilal Nehru Place residence has raised speculations among media and political circles.

According to reports, the daughter of a domestic help who works at Singh’s residence has tested positive. She and her family, who live in the servant quarters, have been quarantined.

Singh, who has not been keeping well for some time, is slowly getting active. Congress leaders said the former Prime Minister attended a meeting of the party’s consultative committee on Thursday through video conference.

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Agencies
January 24,2020

New Delhi, Jan 24: The Election Commission of India on Friday told the Supreme Court that its 2018 direction asking poll candidates to declare their criminal antecedents in electronic and print media has not helped curb criminalisation of politics. The poll panel suggested that instead of asking candidates to declare criminal antecedents in the media, political parties should be asked not to give tickets to candidates with criminal background.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat asked the ECI to come up with a framework within one week which can help curb criminalisation of politics in nation's interest.

The top court asked the petitioner BJP leader and advocate Ashiwini Upadhyay and the poll panel to sit together and come up with suggestions which would help him in curbing criminalisation of politics.

In September 2018, a five-judge Constitution bench had unanimously held that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting polls and had called for a wider publicity, through print and electronic media about antecedents of candidates.

Comments

Satya Vishwasi
 - 
Saturday, 25 Jan 2020

What about those criminals who were already in parliament and vidahan sabhas? shall the ECI cancel their positions?

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