SC gives six weeks time to Centre, Karnataka to decide on BMIC project --- (rs)

The Supreme Court granted six-week time to the Union and Karnataka Governments to take a final decision on the fate of Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project. A bench comprising Justices Tarun Chaterjee, R M Lodha and Deepak Verma adjourned the matter for eight weeks and directed the government-appointed high level committee to take a final decision in the matter within six weeks. Earlier, Attorney General of India G E Vahanvati contended before the Court that the government needed some more time to respond to the additional affidavit filed by the contractor, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE). Counsel for former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Prashant Bhushan, alleged before the Court that a massive fraud was being committed by the contractor in collusion with the state government in the name of the implementation of the Supreme Court order in Som Shekhar Reddy case. JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda was personally present in the Court during the hearing of the case. Senior Counsel for NICE, Dushyant Dave, however, retaliated by alleging that 3,000 acres of land was being held by the cronies of the former Prime Minister. In all, the project required 20,193 acres of land, out of which, 7,000 acres of land had already been handed over to NICE for completing first phase of the project. Only some parcels of land were yet to be acquired. Advocate General for Karnataka, however, alleged in the Court that the contractor was putting pressure on the state government to acquire land in excess of the agreed land for commercial purposes, virtually corroborating the allegations of the former Prime Minister. Later talking to media outside the court room, Mr Deve Gowda alleged that the state government, NICE and the Advocate General have colluded to grab 4,000 acres of land belonging to farmers. The project was signed in 1994 and the Supreme Court directed Karnataka state government to implement the project under which eight townships are to be developed to decongest Bangalore-Mysore express highway, which is not able to take the load of about 62,000 vehicles passing through it daily. According to counsel for NICE, the company has already invested Rs 2,000 crores and delay in execution of the contract was killing the company as its entire working capital was locked in the project. The apex court, however, refused to issue notice on the writ petition filed by the JD(S) leader and again declined it on the intervention application filed by Mr Deve Gowda, seeking to intervene in the matter on behalf of the farmers whose lands were being illegally acquired by the state government.

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