State govt comes to the rescue of advocate general in BMIC project

State govt comes to the rescue of advocate general in BMIC project

The state made it clear whatever the advocate general had submitted to the court was the government's decision. It said charges made by Deve Gowda were baseless and requested SC not to entertain the contempt case. Sreekanth Hunasavadi reports

Sreekanth Hunasavadi



The state government on Thursday filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court and defended advocate general Ashok Harnahalli's submissions saying the allegations made by HD Deve Gowda, former prime minister, in the contempt case was totally false.
The state government also reaffirmed before the apex court that the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project would be implemented in accordance with the frame work agreement and the outline development plan dated February 12 2004.
By filing the affidavit, the state government came to the rescue of advocate general Harnahalli. The state made it clear that whatever the advocate general had submitted to the court was the decision of the government. It also said allegations made by former Devegowda were baseless and requested the court not to entertain the contempt case.
On behalf of the state government, principal secretary of the public works department, RB Agawane, filed the affidavit with regard to the contempt case (Dakshinamurthy and BK Das and others case) saying the state has already taken steps for implementation of the project. As such, there was no justification to continue with the contempt proceedings and the proceedings should be dropped in the interest of justice, the affidavit said.
It also explained the constitution of a high-level committee under the chairmanship of the chief minister and also the proceedings of the committee meeting which was held on November 19 2009.
The proceedings of the committee are as follows:
Allotment & possession of land
Till the end of October 2009, 7,124 acres of land has been handed over and the remaining 13,609 acres of land is yet to be handed over. The project company has already completed the toll road coming under section 'a' of the project and the toll road completion notice has been given to the state government. Traffic is allowed on this road and toll is being collected.
However, certain missing parcels of lands have to be handed over by the departments concerned. It has decided to hand over these missing link lands with clear titles to the project company on or before December 30 2009.
Corporate town near Bidadi
The Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) was directed to hand over 1,916 acres of land excluding the land covered under stay orders by the court, on or before June 30 2010. When the KIADB raised the issue of fixing the price of land, NICEL agreed to accept the land price fixed by the board according to the rule. In the event of farmers approaching court for higher compensation, NICEL agreed to pay the compensation decided by the courts.
Possession & handing over of land
The deputy commissioner, Bangalore Urban, mentioned that the government lands identified way back in 1998 are to be handed over to the project company. Of 158 acres of land that are to be handed over, nearly 130 acres of land are coming under lakes. It was also decided to constitute a committee to decide on the issues of lakes, land grants, encroachments, exemption form stamp duty, registration fee etc.
Execution of the sale deed
KIADB in the department of commerce and industries shall take action for execution of sale deed for the lands already handed over the project company by February 2010 provided NICEL submits indemnity bonds as agreed upon by both the agencies.