If today's proceeding in the court is any indication then it seems that the day of reckoning for the DDA as well as the MOEF is not far off. Today it was the turn of Sri S M Agrawal, the Convenor of the HC appointed Committee called the Usha Mehra Committee for the removal of encroachments from the river, to make his submissions before the bench. (Kindly recall Usha Mehra Committee's Report to the court posted before on this list in the matter). Today was also the first day of hearing after the Hon'ble Judges had made an on the site inspection of the site on 3.1.08 Sri Agrawal, using various documents and most importantly reading out excerpts from previous judgements of SC as well as HC very lucidly established the fact that the DDA had acted against the doctrine of public trust and in violation of various court orders in planning and constructing a residential complex in the garb of the Games Village in the river bed as well as selling the river bed to the DMRC for a Depot, a Yard, residential complex, stations and a Metro mall. Sri Agrawal was also to a great extent able to clarify based on documents and court orders regarding an element of doubt which had purposefully and deliberately been created by the Hon'ble Solicitor General on the previous day regarding whether the area in question is the river bed or not. Sri Agrawal it seems has more in store, which he shall submit further on next Tuesday (15.1.08) when he shall resume his submissions, curtailed today before time, for the bench had to leave to attend a condolence meet. One must acknowledge the patience and sincerity of the bench for the manner in which it is providing good time to all concerned and trying to get to the bottom of the 'game' which is not very easy to fathom since the so called 'National Prestige' associated with the hype around the Commonwealth Games can easily sway any one. hopefully...
