Yamuna more important than Development

"It is a sad story of men in haste fiddling with major issues and resultantly playing havoc," wrote Justice Rekha Sharma of Delhi High Court while delivering her order saying, "This judgement relates to a river which once flowed majestically but is now gasping for breath। If this continues, time is not far off when this gift of Gods, will die an unnatural death getting buried beneath the layers of silt. If no urgent remedial measures are taken Yamuna may exist only in books" in the case related to the "construction of the Commonwealth Games Village in the river bed." After violating of Delhi High Court orders, Chief of Delhi Metro Rail Construction (DMRC), E. Sreedharan has committed a blasphemy by suggesting how to "Control the width of the river, not allowing flood waters to inundate the low-lying areas of the city and allow the river to reach its own natural regime in the constricted width." Sreedharan has revealed his anti-environment stance for good.

Sreedharan and likes of him have a dream which is similar to that cherished by Kamal Nath the then Union Environment Minister। The proposal of construction in the river bed of is a case reminiscent of what Indian Express had reported (in 1996) as "Kamal Nath dares the mighty Beas to keep his dreams afloat" referring to plans to Kamal Nath linked Span Motels Private Limited to have a house on the bank of the Beas in Kullu-Manali Valley after encroaching the land which was later regularised and leased out to the company when Mr. Kamal Nath himself was Minister of Environment and Forests. He did so with the support of Himachal Pradesh government.

In the Kamal Nath case, the Supreme Court held that Himachal Pradesh Government had committed patent breach of public trust by leasing the ecologically fragile land and the approval granted by the Government of India, Ministry of Environment was quashed and state government was asked to restore the river to its original-natural conditions and the hotel was asked to pay compensation।

It is noteworthy that NDTV and Bennett, Coleman and Co। Ltd that publishes The Times of India have made investments in Emaar MGF, a joint venture between Dubai-based property company Emaar and Delhi-based company MGF। Notably, Emaar MGF is the one that's constructing the Commonwealth Games village

In fact The Times of India story based on interview with Sreedharan seems to be an advertisement disguised as news wherein investors like the newspaper’s company in question is using Sreedharan to justify illegal encroachment onto the river bed and flood plain that the DMRC has indulged in first at Shastri Park and in Yamuna Bank.
Representing the regressive developmental mindset akin to Kamal Nath, Sreedharan seems to have become the mouth piece of companies whose obsession with profit make them so blind that they have ended up comparing mighty Yamuna river of Ganga basin with a small European river like Thames.

River Yamuna is a 1400 km river. The catchment of Yamuna river system covers parts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Delhi states. It has a catchment area of 2, 26, 755 sq km ((excluding Chambal)). Catchment basin of Yamuna amounts to 40.2% of the Ganga basin.
Thames has a length of 346 km the river was embanked in stages during the 19th century. It has also suffered because of "mediocre and insensitive development". The river has a catchment area of approximately 13000 sq km.
While rain fall is an every other day feature in UK, the same is not true in monsoon country like India. Rain in India comes in torrents almost every monsoon; it is much gentler in UK. Ground water recharge during monsoon months is a key element of water security in India while such a requirement would be a non issue in UK where ground water recharge would be taking place almost every other day.
Yamuna is quite unlike Thames which has a uniform flow throughout the year. Unlike European rivers, this has given us wide flood plains with 40 metre deep sand aquifers which mitigate the effect of floods and allow water recharge. It has been aptly noted that Europe witnessed massive flooding in the 1990s because of the way they channelised their rivers.
River bed and flood plains are meant only for flood waters and not for man made concrete structures like the Metro depot, stations and other buildings.
How is constructing a hotel in the river bed of Beas different from the construction of Commonwealth Games Village & other structures in the river bed of Yamuna?
The illegal construction of Kamal Nath linked company in Beas was quashed by the apex court, why the same is not being applied in the case of structures being built by The Times of India linked EMR MGF and DMRC in the Yamuna.
One wonders as to what happened to the recently constituted National Ganga River Basin Authority, the ongoing constructions in the river bed of Yamuna clearly illustrates that the Authority is still born.