NICE promise: 40% land to land losers?

Bangalore: Aggrieved over arbitrary fixation of compensation amount by the state government, NICE Ltd on Friday submitted a proposal by filing an affidavit before the high court, offering 40% of developed land as compens­ation to the and losers of the First Township (Corporate Township) of BMIC Project coming up near Bidadi.

The proposed compensation by NICE is in respect of three villages – Goni­p­ura, Tippur, Sheegehalli of Bangalore South taluk and three other villages of Dodd­a­k­u­nt­en­a­halli, Kodiyala and Kar­e­n­ahalli of Ramnagar Taluk (price to be fixed).

NICE has proposed the compensation package after the high court suggested it to come out with a solution that would be acceptable and beneficial to the land losers, state gover­nment and NICE.

NICE had approached the high court, against the compensation price of Rs 40 lakh per acre of land to the land losers. It stated that it has proposed the compensation while keeping the interest of the land losers in mind and also the directions of the HC and SC, to expeditiously implement the BMIC Project as per letter and spirit of the framework “We have proposed an offer of providing 40 percent of Developed Land to the land losers of villages, which will enable them to directly reap the benefit of development along with us, by making them part of the developmental process envisaged by us in the larger interest of the state,” the affidavit states, adding that more than Rs 3,000 crore have been invested into the project consisting of equity and debt and the losses from the project cost escalation and the interest burden are mounting on the us directly due to the hurdles and the delay in implementation of the BMIC Project.

The court has adjourned the matter to January 3, 2014, for further hearing. Relief to encroachers In a rare gesture, the HC has directed the state government to provide welfare schemes and lands to encroachers in one particular case! The court passed the orders following a PIL, seeking to evict the encroachment of 94 acres gomala land and to initiate action against them.

The court, has also observed, “They are also citizens of this country and they have to take care of their lives while providing education and food to their children.”