Take over NICE, Gowda tells Siddaramaiah
Continuing his battle against NICE chairman, Ashok Kheny, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.
Bangalore: Continuing his battle against Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) chairman, Ashok Kheny, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda has now written to CM Siddaramaiah asking him to take over the project to build the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor(BMIC) and prosecute officials who had misrepresented the case in the courts.
Gowda, who released the letter to the media on Monday, recalled that AICC vice president, Rahul Gandhi had himself said if land acquired for a project was not used for the purpose intended, it should be returned to the farmers. “It has been 19 years since the BMIC project to construct a road between Mysore and Bangalore was launched. As the land has still not been used for the specified purpose, the government should take over the project,” he said.
Recalling that the BMIC was his “dream project” when he was PWD minister in the state, Gowda noted that it was entrusted to a foreign company when he became Chief Minister. “Siddaramaiah was finance minister at the time and he knows everything about it.
Even H.K. Patil and Yeddyurappa have called Kheny a fraud in the past and asked the government to take over the project. Now, it looks like both parties are colluding with him,” he charged, adding, “In the original MoU I signed, there were clauses to protect the interests of farmers, save lakes and cemetries. But before the project started, even the BMTF had filed cases against the company and its chairman, who had to get bail.”
Accusing Kheny of not investing any money in the BMIC, Gowda said all he did was to pledge government land allotted for it with the ICICI to raise Rs 150 crore. “He did not even reply to the SC in 2006, when it issued notices to him while asking the government to stick to the original road alignment,” he rued.
Claiming that in his entire political career of over 50 years, he had seen only one other company, Enron, involved in fraud on such a scale, he contended it was time for Siddaramaiah to take a decision and prosecute NICE and the government officials who had colluded with it.