In a bid to bring these warring factions together, the Ministry of Urban Development and Employment (UD&E) has set-up a 12-member high-power committee under the chairmanship of minister Ram Jethmalani. ``The aim of the committee would be ensure overall planned Development of the river Yamuna in a time-bound manner,'' said the circular to the heads of UA&E, Environment and Forests, Water Resources, DDA, Chief Secretary Delhi, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi Urban Arts Commission, Yamuna Standing Committee and Irrigation and Flood Control department.

And even before this new committee has held its first meeting to decide on the agenda, there is debate about its nomenclature. The UA&E ministry has named it `Development Committee' whereas the pollution watch dogs in the committee say it should be `Protection Committee'. According to the Ministry, the 10,000 acres of prime land around the river may be its prime contention. For the others, the quality of the water is of prime importance.

Consider this: DDA had come up with a proposal in which the land around the river be developed into recreational area with movie theatres, parks and other concrete structures for the growing metropolis of Delhi. They even proposed that the river's width be reduced to reclaim more land. The proposal predictably met strong objection from most quarters.

CPCB immediately dashed off a letter to them saying it was unacceptable to them.``They might feel that the Yamuna does not require this width but what about the monsoon months? Also if the flood plains are not there, then the ground-water supply also gets affected,'' said Dilip Biswas, chairman, CPCB.Meanwhile, the Department of Environment and Forests claimed that they had got a proposal cleared to afforest one kilometre wide area for the 22 kilometre stretch on either side.

``Our plan is approved and we are starting work where choicest of species of trees from the Aravallis would be planted bringing back the glory of the river in olden times,'' said H.C Dhawan, Chief Conservator of Forests.While the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) with crores of rupees is already underway, there is a re-think on the basis of the plan itself. ``Even when the 15 sewage treatment plants are in place, there will not be enough water to dilute the treated water in the river,'' said R.C. Trivedi of the CPCB. The treated sewage requires 10 times its volume minimum flow in the river, which is not there.

CPCB sent a proposal in which they said that the sewage be not disposed in the Yamuna at all as proposed in the YAP. Instead, a canal should be built which will take the treated sewage from the 17 drains in Delhi to the Agra canal to be used for irrigation. Some arrangement be made with the Haryana government where as barter, they will release more water at Tajewala.

Drinking water would come from upper reaches of Ganga instead of Wazirabad. They claim that the proposal was accepted by the Supreme Court.

Every second day there is a committee appointed be it with the monitoring agency or with the polluting agencies like the DVB, DDA, Flood and Irrigation, NTPC, Delhi Jal Board, MCD and DSIDC. ``Every action had a parallel action,'' reiterate the Ministry sources.

To make matters worse, even NGOs like Pani Morcha and INTACH have come up with schemes on water harvesting and tapping the monsoon water years ago. Even though considered to be technically sound, all remain on paper. With the setting up of this committee, at least there is recognition of the fact that there is multiplicity of agencies and no proper coordination.