The Hindu : Karnataka News : Come clean on BMIC project, Govt. told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 11, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Come clean on BMIC project, Govt. told

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, MARCH 10. The Karnataka High Court on Thursday said it was "perturbed" by the stand taken by the State Government on the public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed against the execution of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP) and directed the Chief Secretary to file by the month-end an affidavit on it.

A Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Nauvdip Kumar Sodhi, and Justice B. Padmaraj passed an interim order directing the Chief Secretary to file a detailed affidavit by March 31 clearly stating the Government's stand on the project.

The Bench passed the order on a PIL petition. Arguing on behalf of the Government, the Advocate-General, B.T. Parthasarthy, said it was wrong to say that the Government was stalling or delaying the project. He clarified that the Government was committed to the project but not on the terms and conditions put forth by NICE.

He claimed that only recently several disturbing facts and figures on the project had come to light. The Government, he said, was not against the project but only against the acquisition of excess land and the fraud committed by the company.

It had on February 29, 1995 entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Governor of Massachusets for taking up the project. There would have been no problem with the project had NICE adhered to the MoU.

`A victim of fraud'

Mr. Parthasarthy said the Government was a victim of fraud and misrepresentation of facts by NICE. He said except the MoU, there was no other legal agreement between the Government and NICE on the project.

The Bench asked the Advocate-General to come out with the Government stand clearly. It wanted to know whether the Government was going ahead with the project or not. It said the Government's stand that it was misled and was a victim of a fraud could not be easily believed.

The Bench said it was perturbed by the Government's stand which did not appear to be true.

Adjourning the PIL petition to April 7, it directed the Chief Secretary to file an affidavit, clearly spelling out the Government's stand on the project.

It said since the Advocate-General could not give an answer on the stand of the Government, it had directed the Chief Secretary to file the affidavit.

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