Panel on Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises puts MoU under scanner

Bengaluru: The Legislature Committee looking into alleged irregularities by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) in executing the Bengaluru-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project, has decided to start with the original MoU signed between the state government and the Massachusettes based company, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc and the original copy of the Framework of Agreement.

The committee, which met for the first time on Friday, also decided that all transactions of NICE should be scrutinised by the Public Accounts Committee or CAG.
Of the 11 members of the committee, the seven present were its chairman, T B Jayachandra, Basavaraj Rayareddy, J R Lobo, Priyank M Kharge, S T Somashekhar, Sathish Reddy and P R Sudhakar Lal. Absent were Dr Rafiq Ahamed, Mr K M Shivalinge Gowda, Mr B R Patil and Mr S R Vishwanath.

Mr Jayachandra, who had represented the government on almost all committees which took part in negotiations for the project, said it was mired in controversy since inception. After seeing the files, even senior leaders like Mr Mallikarjun Kharge refused to attend any of the meetings. Now, after much deliberations in the Assembly, the committee has been entrusted with the task of looking into violations in the Framework o Agreement and the activities of the company which were in contravention of High Court and Supreme Court directions to execute the project under it,'' he added.

Worse, the transactions of NICE were not subjected to scrutiny by the state Public Accounts Committee or CAG, as the project was executed on a Public-Private partnership basis, he pointed out. “The issue was raised at the All India Conference of PACs and was widely criticised. The time has come to bring some accountability into the project,” Mr Jayachandra said, adding that the committee should have at least three sittings a month to complete the report within three months.