Bengaluru: Declaring that he was tired of pursuing the case against Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), former Prime Minister, H D Deve Gowda on Tuesday said he was leaving it to the Siddaramaiah government now to take it to its logical end.
Recalling that he had signed the MoU for the project in 1995 , he claimed a lot of deviations took place to its original plan after he left for Delhi, during the J H Patel government. “Successive governments took the project too far. Although NICE had to invest Rs 680 crore, till 2002 it had deposited nothing towards land acquisition,' he deplored.
Mr Gowda, who has been involved in a 14 -year legal battle against the project, said he was confident Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and ministers, Dr H.C. Mahadevappa and Kagodu Thimmappa would battle it out against the company. But he not so sure about Law Minister, T.B. Jayachandra, who headed the legislature committee on NICE, Chief Secretary , Aravind Jadhav and PWD Secretary, Lakshminarayana.
“Going by the Supreme Court order in February, the state government, its counsel Aravind Datar and NICE counsel, Dushyanth held a meeting in Bengaluru at the Advocate General's office on April 14 to resolve the issues involved. The court had asked both parties to file a report on outcome of the meeting by April 18. But the government has not submitted its report to the court and farmers too were denied information on the outcome of the meeting. NICE however, not only got the minutes, but also filed objections based on them on June 16,'' Mr Gowda regretted.
Besides, the Chief Secretary had refused to meet farmers and directed them to the PWD Secretary, who was of little help to them, he noted. Even the legislature committee formed to look into the alleged irregularities committed by NICE had held only two or three meetings, he pointed out. “No one knows if this committe is alive or dead,'' he added with sarcasm.
“Three PWD Secretaries have given reports saying that NICE had committed a Rs 30,000 crore fraud and three successive Chief Secretaries have been against this project owing to the large scale irregularities involved. But the current PWD Secretary Lakshminaryana and Chief Secretary seem to have a soft corner for NICE. Otherwise, why would they avoid submitting the meeting proceedings to the Supreme Court?” he wondered.
New forum creates rift
BJP state president B.S. yeddyurappa has opposed the formation of a parallel backward classes organization mentored by Opposition leader in the Legislative Council K.S. Eshwarappa.
The formation of Sangolli Rayanna Brigade (SRB), had irked Mr Yeddyurappa and his supporters but Mr Eshwarappa defended SRB and assured it would help BJP increase its vote base.
“The formation of a separate backward classes forum is not necessary, if a struggle has to be conducted, it should be through the party. There is no scope in the party to create a separate cell”, Mr Yeddyurappa said.
However, Mr Eshwarappa claimed SRB was intended to counter the Congress as the ruling party is under the impression that it had backward classes, Dalits and minorities on its side.
“Congress has neglected them and used them as a vote bank. After I conducting parleys with OBC leaders, Congressmen are worried,” he said.
Mr Muralidhar Rao, in-charge of the Karnataka BJP said the new forum should not harm the interests of the party in any way.
