JOIN USGowda demands action against AG
He alleged that the AG and NICE had mislead the apex court to issue direction for the execution of the project, deviating from the original memorandum of understanding (MoU).
In an affidavit, Gowda said: “the Advocate General, while appearing for Karnataka made a submission to implement the BMIC project on the basis of the Outline Development Plan (ODP) approved on 12.02.2004 and also acceded to the demand of the petitioner company to convene a meeting headed by the Chief Minister of Karnataka albeit contrary to the judgment of this Hon’ble (Supreme) Court.’’ Talking to mediapersons, Gowda said he would attend the court proceedings on the case on November 26.
A fraud of at least Rs 30,000 crore has been committed on the people of Karnataka, he said. Poor people, Dalit farmers and Indira Awas Yojana settlement residents were displaced by the project contractor in collusion with the state government, Gowda alleged. The project planners had changed the alignment of the corridor nine times, he said. In the affidavit, he said the AG and NICE had carried out collusive proceedings on October 27 to mislead the Supreme Court to pass an interim order on November 3, which he said, is required to be recalled in the interest of justice.
He further alleged that “the actions of the AG, NICE and the Government of Karnataka, completely bear out the bona fides for circulating the book titled ‘Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project’ (BMICP) – a case study in fraud and collusion to defeat the ends of justice and defraud courts’ published by the Janata Dal Legal Cell along with other covering letters. He also requested the court to uphold the order passed by the Karnataka High Court seeking a Lokayukta probe on the project .
Gowda said he has relied on various communications during the present state government’s tenure to reveal that according to the letter dated January 6, 1998 sent by NICE, after the signing of the framework agreement to seek various concessions, the entire 6,999 acres of land earmarked for the road had to be reverted to the government after completion of the Build Operate Own Transfer (BOOT) period.
By allowing NICE to implement the project according to the ODP instead of the original MoU, the state government was providing an extra 4914.4 acres to the contractor to be developed and sold by it from the project area of 20,193 acres, the affidavit said. Instead of reverting 14255.7 acres, going by the ODP, the contractor shall be required to revert barely 9341.3 acres to the state government, he said.