Why is BMIC an unending obsession?

Why is BMIC an unending obsession?
H S BALRAM


The stinging slap from the Supreme Court a few months ago doesn’t seem to have unnerved the Kumaraswamy government. Continuing its obsession with the Bangalore-Mysore express corridor project, it has further tightened the noose around the neck of its builder Ashok Kheny, by asking officials not to execute the sale deed and not to give no-objection certificates to farmers who want to sell their land for the project. It has suspended an official who did so. It has also roped in a US-based consortium to take over the project. In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, it has said that the consortium will build the corridor, a monorail between the Electronic City and the upcoming international airport at Devanahalli at no cost, return land not required for the project and deposit Rs 1,000 crore with the government to be forfeited in the event of failing to meet deadlines.
No one knows the credibility of this consortium. But, why is the government bent on changing horses mid-stream? What’s the message it is trying to send at a time when the state is crying for good infrastructure? Didn’t an earlier attempt to enact a legislation to take over the project fail because of no support from coalition partner BJP? Why have Deve Gowda and his sons made this a prestige issue?
Ironically, the project was conceived when Deve Gowda was CM. Subsequent governments endorsed it and completed the formalities. The papers are said to be in order. The courts have rejected all objections, including that of excess land. So, where is the hitch? Why is the project not being allowed to be completed? Why is the government moving the courts again and again spending crores of precious public money?
Didn’t the Supreme Court give a go-ahead to the project saying it is in the larger public interest? Didn’t it rebuke the government for filing frivolous litigation with mala fide intentions? Didn’t it ask the government to pay Rs 5 lakh as cost to the corridor builders, apart from slapping a fine of Rs 50,000 each on three persons who filed the petition?
Or, is Deve Gowda using the BMIC to fight a proxy war with bete noire S M Krishna? It was in 2002, during Krishna’s regime, that the project was put on the fast track, environmental clearance given and a land lease agreement signed. In 2004, when the JD(S)-Congress coalition under Dharam Singh took over, Gowda suddenly smelt a fraud and accused the BMIC builders of having acquired more land than required. He forced Dharam Singh, who under Krishna had approved the project, to order a probe. Singh chose an official, who was a member of the committee that had cleared the project, to conduct the inquiry.
The official took a U-turn and endorsed Gowda’s apprehension by saying that 2,450 acres of land were, indeed, in excess. The cabinet accepted the findings. The then chief secretary lost no time in filing an affidavit in the high court stating that the land lease agreement signed by the Krishna regime was a result of “fraud and misrepresentation’’ and deserved to be scrapped. The move boomeranged. The high court took strong exception and ordered criminal prosecution of the chief secretary.
The apex court upheld the order saying, “Merely because there was change in government, there was no necessity for reviewing all decisions taken by the previous government, which is what appears to have happened. Permitting the argument on excess land to be heard again to scuttle a project of this magnitude would encourage dishonest, politically-motivated litigation and permit the judicial process to be abused for political ends.”
That the government has again approached the court, despite the rap, is surprising. Is it trying to shield the high and mighty among politicians and bureaucrats, who reportedly own land along and around the corridor’s path? Shouldn’t it be focusing on other projects that need a big push? With Mysore growing as a second IT destination after Bangalore, isn’t an expressway for faster connectivity an absolute necessity? Don’t we need such expressways across the state, particularly to connect Tier II cities like Hubli and Mangalore with Bangalore? Should politicians be allowed to kill public projects to satisfy their personal egos?
PARTING SHOT