Bengaluru, Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on Monday questioned the Karnataka government’s reported decision to allot 1,453 sites to land losers of the BMICP, alleging that the move could be contrary to Supreme Court judgments and the government’s own earlier stand on the issue.
“Are the real beneficiaries of the sites not the land losers but NICEL and its investors? Are the investors in your Cabinet, Mr. Chief Minister? The state wants to know,” Gowda asked.
He recalled that the state government had told the Supreme Court in 2016 that permitting formation of sites at Bengaluru-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project interchanges was contrary to the Framework Agreement of April 3, 1997 and could amount to contempt of court orders. He also pointed to the government’s stand before the High Court in March 2023, rejecting NICEL’s request to allot sites to land losers on the ground that sites could not be formed on land acquired for roads and road infrastructure under the FWA.
In an open letter to Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, the JD patriarch said the Cabinet had directed Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited on September 4 to allot the sites and alleged that the government was attempting to “subvert the rule of law” by claiming judicial sanction for the decision. “The impunity with which your Cabinet believes it can subvert the rule of law by drawing the wool over the eyes of the public is breathtaking,” Gowda said. Gowda said the Supreme Court had subsequently upheld the government’s stand and categorically held that NICEL was bound by the FWA, while formation of sites at interchanges and on lands handed over for roads and road infrastructure had “no foundation in the FWA” and would undermine the project’s objective of reducing urban congestion. The former prime minister said the court had described the conduct as “a fraud on the statute and Constitution” and observed that the project had not served public good or public purpose but private interests of its proponents.
