SC seeks status report on BMIC

Govt will not come in the way of the project: Advocate General

A bench headed by Justice Tarun Chatterjee asked State Advocate General Ashok Haranahalli to file a status report before the Court within three weeks, enumerating the meeting’s outcome.

The Court made it clear that the meeting should be headed by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, the chief secretary and other officials concerned. The matter came up in the Supreme Court in connection with a March 25 contempt notice to the State’s top bureaucrats for their failure to abide by its order on implementing the project.

Haranahalli said the State had already handed over 7,000 acres of land to Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), and that 1,900 acres more were to be given to it soon.

“We will not come in the way of the project execution. We are ready to give whatever land is required under the law,’’ Haranahalli assured the Court.

He also requested the court to issue directions to the contractor to stick to the alignment of the roads approved in the original plan. NICE advocate Dushyant Dave said the execution of the project had been delayed due to two PILs filed in the SC and the Karnataka HC.

Dave said three years after the pronouncement of the SC judgement, only 18 per cent of the land had been allotted to his client for executing the project. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for writer U R Ananthamurthy, submitted that his plea be heard before the Court took a decision.