State Govt files review plea in SC on BMIC

State Govt files review plea in SC on BMIC
Deccan Herald

The State Government on Monday filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking review of its order of April 20 relating to the controversial Bangalore-Mysore four-lane expressway project, and rehearing of the matter.....

The State Government on Monday filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking review of its order of April 20 relating to the controversial Bangalore-Mysore four-lane expressway project, and rehearing of the matter.

The petition follows a series of developments over the issue, after the apex court cleared the project and imposed exemplary costs of Rs 5 lakh on the State Government for bringing the issue before it. The Karnataka Government’s petition mentioned that the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) had secured 2,150 acres around Bangalore in excess of what was actually required for the project.

This excess land at today’s price was worth over Rs 30,000 crore, it added. The excess land given to NICE would affect future generations and also result in a loss to the exchequer, the government submitted in the petition. According to the petition, NICE, which is executing the project, was a third party and as such should not have secured the project. It should have nothing to do with the BMIC project.

The petition enclosed a copy of a letter written by Governor T N Chaturvedi and stated that the governor, a former comptroller and auditor general, too, had opined after his own inquiry that the project had been given excess land.

Deshpande’s charge

Meanwhile in the State Assembly in Bangalore, Senior Congress leader R V Deshpande on Monday accused the government of unnecessarily sensationalising the BMIC project and urged the government to immediately execute its powers to denotify any “excess land” granted to the project.

Continuing the discussion on the BMIC issue in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Deshpande wondered what prevented the government from denotifying any excess land to the project. “Why raise a hue and cry on the issue, when you have the powers to denotify any excess land and protect the interest of farmers”, Mr Deshpande said and pointed out that in November 2003, he, as the industries minister, had ordered denotification of 3,600 acres of land notified in excess to the requirement. However, the order had not been implemented even today, he claimed.