JD(S) leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy has demanded a CBI probe into the “irregularities” in the execution of Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE).
Replying to the comments by DyCM D K Shivakumar, who had said that the BMIC agreement was signed when H D Deve Gowda was the chief minister, Kumaraswamy, in a tweet, accused Shivakumar of twisting the agreement.
“The basic agreement signed by Deve Gowda, when he was the Chief Minister, clearly stated that the government will not give a single penny for the execution of the project and the company should spend, even for land acquisition. Let Shivakumar answer who has twisted the agreement,” Kumaraswamy said.
The former chief minister even pointed fingers at a retired bureaucrat, who is now heading the Brand Bengaluru initiative, and said, “The DyCM is now working closely with the retired IAS officer who tweaked the NICE agreement and allowed the land grabbers to grab thousands of acres of government land.”
However, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah called Kumaraswamy’s statements regarding the NICE a lie.
“Action could have been taken when the coalition government came to power after the Congress government. It is a lie that the Congress had tied his hands to conduct an investigation. If that was true, he should have resigned as chief minister,” said Siddaramaiah.
Published 22 July 2023, 16:52 IST