Stiff resistance to present NICE report in Assembly

A section of the senior ministers in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Cabinet are not in favour of presenting the Legislature House Committee report on the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project, to the legislature.

The committee headed by Law Minister T B Jayachandra, has looked into reported violations in the framework agreement by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), the implementing agency of BMIC project. The committee has held 50 sittings and has prepared a 400-page report. It was submitted to Speaker K B Koliwad on Thursday for formal approval.

The practice is to distribute copies of the report with the permission of the Speaker. It is learnt that the Speaker has not permitted the report’s submission in the Assembly so far. He has reportedly sought time to read the report before going ahead with the presentation, it is learnt.

This is so despite Jayachandra and some members on the committee requesting the Speaker to allow the submission of the report. The members also met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday to draw his attention towards the reluctance on the part of the Speaker to present the report.

However, a couple of senior ministers and members on the panel are vehemently opposing submission of the report in the ongoing session, it is learnt. The members on the panel include MLAs K M Shivalinge Gowda, S T Somashekar, S R Vishwanath, Basavaraj Rayareddi, Priyank Kharge, Satish Reddy, B R Patil, Sudhakar Lal, Rafeeq and Lobo.

The major recommendations of the committee report are:

n As a lot of irregularities have taken place in the implementation of BMIC project, a CBI enquiry should be ordered.

n Nearly 10,000 acres of land is being planned to be given to the company against the framework agreement. This includes 270 acres of land in and around Bengaluru.

n Already 5,000 acres of land has been given to NICE.The excess land given should be taken back.

n The promoter should have built a cement road. Though this has not been done, toll is being collected from 2012. The collection should be immediately stopped and toll collected should be taken back.

n NICE is planning to sell 554 acres of land which is part of 7,000 acres of land given to it on lease for the formation of peripheral ring road. This illegal agreement should not be executed.

n As many as 5,000 acres of land has been set aside for townships to be formed by the company. But not a single township has been formed. The company has violated even the Supreme Court directions.