Delhi underground

Just plant the leak
At the inauguration of the weightlighting auditorium inside the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium complex,Union Sports Minister M S Gill told reporters that it was a “state-of-the-art building”,refuting media reports that the Games buildings were sub-standard. One may think he may have missed seeing rivulets of water trickling from the dome-shaped ceiling and down the sides of the building. But the workers and the building team certainly hadn’t missed the seepage,caused by just a few hours of rain. Just before the inauguration function,workers were instructed to place tall potted plants at places where the leaks were evident.

Shifting deadline 
EVEN as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD),by its own admission,has missed deadlines for many Commonwealth Games projects and shifted deadlines of others,there is one project that the Corporation is particularly worried about. Work on the multi-level underground parking lot at Ramlila Maidan in Chandni Chowk finally began this year after a delay of almost five years. However,soon after the work began,the MCD decided it was better not to tie the much-delayed project to the Games deadline. The MCD is now aiming to finish the project by late October,at least in time for the Ramlila. 

Bridging gaps
HAVING faced flak for negligence of monuments,the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is now gearing up to clear its image prior to the Commonwealth Games. The body,which last year initiated discussions and deliberations to repair and restore the heritage Mangi Bridge,connecting Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort,finally started work last week with foreign consultants. The ASI made sure everyone caught a glimpse of the British conservationists who had been roped in to repair the bridge. It now promises to finish the project well before the Games,conveniently brushing aside the fact that the bridge had crumbled in April 2009 and been forgotten for over an year and a half. 

Caught late
PRESENTING the case of some students of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) who were refused permission to sit for exams due to attendance shortage,their counsel argued the students were declined attendance even though they were “only 10 to 20 minutes late”. The argument however boomeranged on the lawyer,with Justice Manmohan expressing his deep anguish at the casual reference to getting late. “This attitude of indiscipline is the problem. Here you argue for students that getting late by few minutes is no big deal and similarly,when matters are taken up in court,lawyers arrive late for them and have analogous contentions. It is not right and has to be corrected,because every establishment has its set of disciplines,” shot back the angry judge. The counsel was left wondering whose case he had to defend first,that of the legal fraternity or the students. 

Lending their voice
THE DU-DUTA war over implementation of the semester system has entered a new theatre with the High Court calling for students to be consulted. The DUSU,the obvious face of DU students,jumped in with glee. DUSU president Manoj Choudhary,once detained at the Maurice Nagar thana for ransacking the Vice-Chancellor’s office,went on record supporting the semester system hours after the High Court order. He even called the V-C a ‘revolutionary’. However,the next day,the three other DUSU office-bearers wrote to the V-C against the semester system,pushing their president to a corner. Incidentally,the letter written by the three had arguments eerily similar to those raised by DUTA the previous day.

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