Aiming to grab road project, Karnataka seeks legal opinion

Aiming to grab road project, Karnataka seeks legal opinion
Indian Express


Bangalore, June 5:The H D Kumaraswamy-led Karnataka Government has sought legal opinion from the state Advocate-General and other experts on the competency of its draft Bill for the takeover of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project.

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Though the Bill does not feature in the agenda for the two-day legislative session that began today, sources in the state Parliamentary Affairs Department said the Government was pushing for its speedy enactment.

‘‘The draft has gone to the Advocate-General for an opinion. The Bill is unlikely to be introduced during the current session,’’ Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Basavaraj Horatti said.

‘‘The Bill is still under consideration. Simultaneous consultation on the competency of the draft Bill is on. It could still be tabled in this session,’’ sources said.

The Government would like to have either an ordinance or a Bill in place by June 16 when a small section of the BMIC is to be opened, sources said. The object of the Bill is to ‘nationalise’ large infrastructure projects (needing more than 5000 acres of land) but is specifically aimed at the BMIC project.

Officials of the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise said their 1997 Framework Agreement with the Karnataka Government protected the project from ‘‘changes in law’’ that ‘‘materially and adversely affect the implementation of the project’’.

‘‘The move will not stand the test of law,’’ an official said. The Bill being piloted chiefly by H D Deve gowda's JD(S) has not yet found favour with its coalition partner, the BJP. The JD(S) is hoping to convince the BJP that the Bill can be projected as a pro-farmer move to rescue agricultural land from the real estate lobby.

The BJP while in opposition had incidentally sought the scrapping of the project. The draft Bill is, however, contradictory to some other recent moves by the JD(S)-BJP coalition government for the development of infrastructure in Bangalore and the rest of the state.

The Government is on one hand moving towards a new infrastructure policy, including probably a new law that will enable greater private participation in infrastructure projects. On the other hand, the biggest private infrastructure development project of its kind in the country is being stalled inadvertently at the behest of former Prime Minister H D Deve gowda, despite the Supreme Court upholding its legal validity.

BJP: It lies within state govt’s powers

• NEW DELHI: The BJP on Monday said the Karnataka Government had the power to take over any private project in the state.

When reached for his response to a move by the JD(S)-BJP regime to push through a Bill to empower itself to take over the Bangalore-Mysore Expressway project from the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said: ‘‘It lies within sovereign powers of the state Government.’’ ‘‘The H D Kumaraswamy government can take over any private project,’’ he added.

Javadekar refused to answer subsequent questions saying he was not aware of details about the reported draft Bill. ‘‘We may be in a position to say more on the issue tomorrow,’’ he sai