Can the govt object to a NICE windfall now?

Can the govt object to a NICE windfall now?
Deccan Herald

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has given vent to a range of emotions in dealing with a nettlesome project like the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) in the four months that he has been in office. His reactions have ranged from pragmatism to illogicality, from a conciliatory tone to anger, from acceptance of reality to frustration at his own government's helplessness.

It is true that he inherited the controversial project from four previous governments, starting with the one headed by his own father, Mr H D Deve Gowda, and by the time he came to power, the State's commitment was neck-deep and the project, with all its plus and minus points, was well on its way.

One may agree or disagree with the arguments of Mr Ashok Kheny, the feisty promoter of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises which is executing the project, but one has to give him the credit for doggedly pursuing his dream with successive governments and skilfully wading through the bureaucratic red tape to reach the stage of execution.

Mr Kheny managed to get the cooperation of every government for sealing various agreements until the Dharam Singh government (under the hostile influence of Mr Deve Gowda) turned against the project in late 2004 and made every effort to scuttle it. But Mr Kheny has won every single legal battle from the High Court to the Supreme Court, showing the government machinery and the political leadership guiding it, in a very poor light.

The fact that the Supreme Court passed severe strictures against the State, imposed exemplary cost on the government and a former chief secretary faces a possible jail term for perjury, while the project has been cleared in all respects, clearly shows the government overreached itself in trying to renege from its commitments.

After failing to impress the courts, Mr Kumaraswamy began harping on the “excess land” and wanted to initiate a public debate on how the whole project was “anti-farmers.”

Mr Kheny points to the SC judgement to refute the charge of excess land as the court has completely rejected the State's argument.

With a water-tight agreement on hand, he has no reason to enter into a public debate on the issue either.

The Framework Agreement signed by the government with NICE in April 1997, made a commitment to allot 20,193 acres of land (both government and private) for the project, but inexplicably, it was classified as “secret.”

Had the government been more transparent and initiated a public debate on the draft agreement before entering into the deal, much of the embarrassment it encountered later could have been avoided.

But, for the better part of the last one decade, the government spokespersons gave only skeletal details of the agreement, saying that NICE would build a 111 km expressway, with the promoter being allowed to collect a toll for 30 years and then handing over the road to the government.

Besides, the promoter would be allowed to build five townships along the way to recoup some of the costs.

With the Framework Agreement now available in public domain, it emerges that the promoter has been allowed not just to construct an expressway and five townships, but a host of other commercial complexes, convention centres, exhibition halls, kalyan mantaps, bus and truck terminals, industrial sheds and so on.

Mr Kheny, of course, is entitled to execute all that the government has committed itself to and reap the dividends. The courts have also clearly said so. What, however, appears to have caused envy among politicians and bureaucrats (some of whom allegedly own huge tracts of land in the project area) is that the land prices around Bangalore have soared and Mr Kheny is going to reap a “windfall.”

Mr Kheny was either a genius who foresaw tapping a goldmine by taking up the project or it was his plain good luck that is going to make him a multi-millionaire. But is that good enough reason to badger him to concede something the government now considers as the “excess land?”

With the opening of the 9-km stretch of the road and ensuring handsome compensation to those who lost their lands to the project, Kheny has already won the hearts of the affected people.

The smooth inauguration of the road, despite politically-engineered trouble and the government's ham-handed attempt to block it, is a testimony to Mr Kheny's tenacious approach.

The government may now rue that a private promoter has been allowed to walk away with a money-spinning project, which it could have accomplished at a fraction of the cost. But the fact of the matter is that people are desperate for some basic infrastructure they have long been denied by callous governments, and if Mr Kheny had the vision to execute it and hit a jackpot in the bargain, so be it.