JOIN USHouse panel report on BIAL trashed
A day after committee chariman D Hemachandra Sagar tabled the report in the Assembly, Congress member of the panel leader D K Shivakumar, who is also the party’s working president, said he would w
rite to the Speaker on Wednesday and urge him to withdraw the report and make appropriate amendments to the proposals.
The committee was set up in in 2008 after Shivakumar alleged that the airport construction was of poor quality and had demanded setting up a House probe panel.
Shivakumar claimed that only seven of the 20 committee members had signed the report. “The report was finalised without informing other members. The report was finalised when most of the members were busy in the recent council election campaign,” he alleged.
The Congress leader was not even prepared to take ownership of the report. Strongly opposing the manner in which Narayana Murthy and Rajiv Chandrashekar were held responsible for the poor quality work, he said: “How can we hold them responsible and take action against them?...They were invitees of the State government. The report is vindictive,” he stated. Murthy was the chairman of BIAL till 2005.
The committee had recommended blacklisting Larsen & Toubro, Siemens and Unique Zurich Airport which, as a consortium, developed the project. The committee also wanted to ban these companies from taking up any work in the State in the next five years. The report indicted top bureaucrats, including V P Baligar and K Jairaj.
The panel comprised 20 members from all parties, including H D Revanna and H C Balakrishna, Srinivas Prasad, Abdul Azeem, K C Kondaiah and other senior leaders.
He said, the BIAL has written to him assuring to upgrade the airport to the international standards, besides developing additional 10 lakh sq ft of land at the airport. But the committee, he claimed, has turned a blind eye on the BIAL’s assurances while making its recommendations.
“The committee should have incorporated all these facts in the report. Hence, I want the report to be withdrawn and bring in necessary amendments,” he stated.