NICE tried to bribe me: K’taka CM

WAR OF WORDS - NICE tried to bribe me: K’taka CM

We want this 11-yr-long hell to end. We’re not against this project, but we do not want them to grab valuable land around Bangalore. —H.D. Kumaraswamy

The Hindustan Times



FARMERS BEGAN cooking food on a stretch of the Rs 2,850 crore Bangalore-Mysore expressway as a mark of protest even as charges flew thick and fast between chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) here on Monday.

The chief minister charged NICE of trying to bribe him in order to secure excess land for the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project. “We want this eleven year long hell to end. We are not against this project, but we do not want them to grab valuable land around Bangalore. They tried to influence me, first through a former minister of the previous government and then through an editor af ter I took over as CM. They (NICE) are try ing to run a parallel government as they did with previous governments but we will fight till the end for the state’s inter ests,” he told a news conference.

Throwing down the gauntlet to NICE, the CM asked it to take part in a tele vised debate on all as pects of the project, including its demand for 2,451 acres of land that triggered the confrontation. “They say officials are mis leading the govern ment. They are giv ing shoddy details to the media. So, let them participate in a debate rather say everything on the sly,” he said.

On media reports that he owned 27 acres of land in the project area, Kumaraswamy said: “The land that I own is neither near the expressway nor in the satellite towns planned by NICE.” On its part, the NICE consortium sent a 27-page letter to Kumaraswamy, requesting him to honour the April 19 verdict of the Supreme Court. “The chief minister’s allegation that we tried to bribe him is an attempt to malign our reputation. We won’t resort to such means after a legal battle that lasted three years. We have utmost faith in the judiciary and will turn to the courts for justice. We are not interested in a debate because all the issues have been addressed by the apex court,” a spokesman for the consortium said.

Meanwhile, farmers threatened to stall the opening of a section of the expressway at Hemmigepura—the first major milestone of the project— scheduled for inauguration on June 16. They are seeking development of neighbouring villages and free access to the toll road.