State govt yet to apprise SC of NICE issue, says Gowda

JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda on Thursday charged the state government with failing to apprise the Supreme Court of a meeting held with regard to the state’s dispute with Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise.

Addressing the media in Bengaluru, Gowda said the court had directed the government to hold a meeting with NICE to resolve the issue pertaining to the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project.

Four months have lapsed since the meeting (held on May 16), but the government had not furnished the proceedings of the meeting recorded by the Advocate General to the court. He charged that the proceedings had been “kept secret by the Chief Secretary”.

He said the case was coming up for hearing before the Supreme Court on Friday, but the government’s approach to the legal battle was unenthusiastic. Gowda said he has hence decided to appeal to the Supreme Court to club his application with the case being heard. He said he would continue his legal battle against NICE till the farmers get justice.

Lauding West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee foaar her struggle against the handing over of agricultural land to Tata Motors in Singur, he said it was unfortunate that successive governments in Karnataka had failed to return around 2,000 acres of land acquired from farmers for the BMIC project.