The Karnataka government has told the Supreme Court that it might be forced to retract from its contractual obligations in the controversial Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMIC) if the project developer did not desist from “fraudulent activities to earn more profits”.
Submitting an application before the apex court last week, the State government said: “The Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Ltd (NICE), the project developer, had manipulated the records in collusion with some government officials to grab additional saleable land of 1,319.43 acres in the townships worth minimum Rs 6,650 crore”.
NICE not willing
The NICE was not willing to implement the project as per the directions of the apex court and was hell-bent on taking the benefits of its own wrongs and fraudulent activities in order to maximise its illegal profits at the expense of the State and public, it said.
While sending out a strong warning to the promoter, the petition asserted that the State government had all rights and entitlements under the contract to take whatever action it deemed fit, in the interest of the State and public.
The matter, which would come up for hearing after the summer vacation in July, has been embroiled in litigation for the past eleven years due to the alleged involvement of politicians, officials and the project developers in corrupt practices.
Squarely blaming some of its officials for being hand-in-glove with the NICE, the petition said: “All along, the project company has been in conscious knowledge of its own wrongs and manipulations, which it has carried out in collusion with the State government officers and for so long, has been able to have the massive record of the State remaining suppressed”.
According to the framework agreement (FWA) signed on April 5, 1997, between the Karnataka government and the developers, the NICE had the right to saleable land of 5,937.3 acres in five townships which was worth Rs 31,250 crore at the lower spectrum of the present value, whereas the cost to construct the expressway, peripheral road and link road would be maximum Rs 3000 crore. The company had been also given the right to collect toll tax for 30 years.
he NICE was not satisfied and on the basis of the manipulation of the records, it was claiming the rights over the entire 6,999 acres of land on which the roads would be constructed after the lapse of the lease on the completion of 30 years, the petition further said.
“But it is claiming a right, on the basis of fabrication of records and suppression of massive government documents and decisions, to saleable land to the tune of 1,529 acres in the toll road section worth more than Rs 30,000 crore,” said the application.
The Karnataka High Court, in its judgment delivered on September 21, 1998 in the Somashekhar Reddy case, held that the company was entitled to sell only 45 per cent of the available land in the five townships and the roads would be handed over to the government after the lapse of the lease period.
The Supreme Court, in its judgment on April 20, 2006, had upheld the High Court order and directed the parties to stick to the clauses of the original agreement.