NICE denies violating FWA

NICE denies violating FWA



Express News Service First Published : 17 Jul 2009 04:45:00 AM IST
BANGALORE: Responding to the news reports published as Express expose on July 14 (How NICE changed the alignment of infrastructure corridor), July 15 (NICE sitting on 7000 acres excess land) and July 16 (NICE gobbled up 17 tanks), in The New Indian Express, Bangalore, the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) has issued a clarification.
The Express reports were based on information accessed under the Right to Information Act.
In a clarification NICE has denied reports that it has violated the the Frame Work Agreement (FWA) while implementing the project.
Alignment change
A statement issued by NICE says: “NICE cannot arbitrarily change the alignment, much less the project area.
If RTI documents are selectively read and released to the Media, obviously one would tend to think that their allegations might be right. But if a detailed study is made of the entire file, one would see that various scientific and legal inputs have been considered before finalising the project area.” It further stated the actual process of acquisition involves substantially detailed and scientific process, in which satellite imagery is used to fix an approximate area to implement the project. Subsequently, NRSA Aerial Photographs are utilised for considering various inputs like, village settlements, lakes, vegetation, water bodies, topographical features, etc.
The area under purview are notified under Sec 3(1), 1(3) and Sec 28(1) of the KIAD Act, the statement said.
Excess land
The company responded by saying: “The agreement between NICE and KIADB only indicates an approximate extent of land to be acquired and transferred to the Company. It is in fact the FWA which gives absolute clarity to the extent of land required for the project,” said the statement.
According to NICE, out of 20,193 acres required as per the FWA, the company got 7,277 acres of land. It is yet to get the remaining land.
Lake encroachment
NICE states that it has not encroached on any lake and the FWA provides the ‘Framework’ for the company and the Government to implement the project in a scientific and legal manner.
Hence. alignments have been finalised using scientific manner.