President Mukherjee to give Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Fest a miss

New Delhi, Mar 7: President Pranab Mukherjee will not be attending The Art of Living's mega event 'World Culture Festival (WCF) 2016'. The President has expressed his inability to attend the event.

Mukherjee, had earlier agreed to attend the opening of the festival alongwith Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday said that he will not be present for the same.

WCF was in news recently after it was found by the NGT that the Art of Living Foundation had damaged the Yamuna floodplains while preparing for the event.

Environment activists have said that the event will cause serious damage to Yamuna's ecosystem.

However Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has said that they will not harm the Yamuna river and said that nobody associated with the event will stay there.

The Art of Living Foundation has said that there won't be any permanent damage to the river and that they had secured permission to hold the event. The foundation has claimed that they have used eco-friendly materials to build a temporary stage.

The three-day event will begin on March 11 and is being held on the 35th anniversary of the Art of Living foundation, is expected to be attended by nearly 35 lakh people.. Nearly 35 lakh people are expected to attend the event.

OneIndia News