Isn't the CS a Revanna man? Wish the BMIC and ourselves best of luck. City Zen

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yep he is ... he is in trouble, don't know if it matters or not, but still.. "He's known as the second most powerful man in Karnataka but now Chief Secretary PB Mahishi is in the eye of a storm after RTI activist group Mahiti Hakku Jagruti Vedike claimed to have unearthed a corruption case against him. The group claims a CBI FIR of 2006 names Mahishi an accused in a Rs 8.48 crore scandal in the Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd." you can read more about it and see a video here...

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New Delhi: Karnataka, under President’s rule, on Friday informed the Supreme Court it is taking a fresh look at the Bangalore-Mysore expressway project, which was the centre of a spat between contractor Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) and the erstwhile H D Kumaraswamy regime. Karnataka government counsel Sanjay Hegde requested a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan for an adjournment of hearing on the matter that was scheduled for next week. He said, “The new administration will take a fresh look at the project’’. NICE had filed a contempt plea against the state government alleging it was putting roadblocks at every stage, causing huge financial loss and delay to the project. On the other hand, the state government had approached the apex court seeking permission for re-bidding on the remaining work of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC). The state said it had got a brandnew proposal from Global Infrastructure Consortium, a US-based entity, to add Rs 1,700 crore worth of monorail to the project without any additional cost to the state. Earlier, the apex court had lambasted the government headed by Kumaraswamy for creating impediments for NICE, and imposed costs on it. The Kumaraswamy government had accused the project promoter of trying to develop the excess land it had acquired in the garb of the expressway project, and of selling it at a much higher price.

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The path taken by Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project executed by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises has been plagued by controversies. Here are important milestones of project. February, 1995: MoU signed by CM H D Deve Gowda with William Weld, governor of Massachusetts, USA, as part of sister state agreement; consortium involves VHB (USA), SAB engineering (USA) and Kalyani Group (India). Includes seven townships November, 1995: GO based on the MoU (PWD 32 CSR 95) authorising acquisition of 18,313 acres for the highway and five townships. 1996: NICE is formed as the project implementation company, leaving out VHB. April, 1997: Framework agreement signed. Approximate land given as 20,193 acres in an unsigned annexure. 1997: C R Ramesh, as PWD secretary files affidavit in the Karnataka High Court, questioning land requirement. October, 1998: Agreement between KIADB and NICE, land extent estimated to be 23,846 acres. July 2000: Public hearings on objections. August 2002: Environmental clearance from Union ministry of environments and forests. August 2002: Toll-franchise and land-lease agreements signed between NICE and government. June\November, 2003: KIADB sells 30 acres to NICE, which in turn sells to IMTMA. March, 2004: NICE begins construction. April, 2004: Governor T N Chaturvedi advises chief secretary to take appropriate action on excess land. May, 2004: KIADB special DC issues preliminary notification for 29,258 acres. November, 2004: K C Reddy committee constituted. December, 2004: Committee interim report submitted, stating 2,450 acres allocation is excess; cabinet accepts the report. March, 2005: Committee’s final report submitted, giving final land requirement figure as 17,809 acres. Cabinet upholds this and chief secretary K K Misra files affidavit in HC based on this. May 2, 2005: HC says CS’s affidavit is false, orders expedition of the project and criminal prosecution of Misra. April 20, 2006: SC upholds the Karnataka HC judgment, favouring continuance of the project. July 3, 2006: State files review petition before the SC seeking review of its April 20 order. November 2006: SC dismisses review petition as not even an acre of land has been transferred to NICE. November 2006: The apex court admits contempt petition against the government filed by NICE. October 5, 2007: SC adjourns contempt case hearing against the government to October 29. October 25, 2006: Governor Rameshwar Thakur accepts resignation of Advocate General Uday Holla, who was arguing the case for the state. source TOI epaper

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Gowda Shoots 14-page letter to Governor Thakur.

Mr Gowda pointed out that releasing of “excess” land in favour of NICE would amount to legitimising “fraud worth Rs 30,000 crore” in implementing the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project and against the public interest.

Mr Gowda claimed that the present administration under the Governor has no right to change or alter the decisions taken by the Government headed by Mr H D Kumaraswamy with regard to implementation of the BMIC project as all those decisions were initiated after a thorough debate in the Legislative Assembly and were based on the verdicts of the SC.

“the administration under President’s rule (working under the Governor) can only at best defer the implementation of the policy taken by the earlier government till an elected government assumes offices but can not annul them or review them or alter them as it is the prerogative of only a duly elected government.”

Mr Gowda also claimed that the NICE, which had been all through seeking early hearing of cases before the Supreme Court, now seeking to delay the hearing of the matters after the JD(S)-BJP government submitted before the Apex Court certain documents which were kept “suppressed” from the Court.

Game Plan
“The game plan of the company in seeking delay in hearing of the matter has been simply to await change in administration and influence the stance of the Government in its favour, which the company proclaimed to its investors”

“while the matter is still pending before the Court it is lobbying for more land to be released contrary   to Government’s professed stand in the Court on affidavit, without even bothering to answer the allegation of fraud based on its own record and documents, which negate its claim of having a right to develop and sell land from toll road section of the project.”

“The NICE, in order to divert the attention from the real issues of fraud and fabrication of Government records in its attempt to misappropriate land worth Rs 30,000 crore has unleashed a vicious false propaganda, through media, against me personally and my family by making false and baseless allegation that we have vested financial interest in stalling a project and a partnership in the Global Infrastructure Consortium (GIC), which has now come forward to implement the project in place of NICE.”

He justified the JD(S)-BJP government’s stand to hand over BMIC project to the GIC as it has agreed to forgo “excess” land, offered to building additional infrastructure worth Rs 1,700 crore, offered to pay Rs 3 lakh as self-imposed penalty per day if project not completed within the deadline. [TS: Doh!!]

The former prime minister also saw no urgency in taking any decision with regard to the project till an elected government assumed office. He said that the company did not do any work till 2004 since 1995 for commencing the project.
 
Non-completion of the expressway, till a popular government assumed office after election within a few months, does not in any way affect the commuters as the existing Mysore-Bangalore road has been upgraded to a four-lane road recently, he pointed out.
[TS: Saar! people need the peripheral road. you can stall the expressway to mysore, allow PRR to complete no?]

source: Deccan Herald

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Drum On The Road
In other news on NICE today, during a hearing in the KA HC in which contempt of court notices were issued to all and sundry, including State Chief Secretary P B Mahishi, Commerce and Industry Secretary K M Shivkumar, Urban Development Secretary Subhash Chandra, PWD Secretary Sudhir Krishna and NICE MD Ashok Kheny and its seven other directors, state Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph said “This one project in Bangalore has become like a drum in middle of the road. If a drum is kept in middle of a road, everybody would beat it once and go.”
ROFL. hahahahaha... there are many ways to say this in kannada dharmad aeTu is one, but as jaggesh would say this one is really a "nand elli iDli nandagopala" case. back to news:

The Division Bench headed by Justice K Shreedhar Rao ordered notices following a civil contempt complaint filed by Pramod Layout Residents Welfare Association, Pantharapalya, Bangalore. The complainant has alleged violation of a HC order in May 2005 that had directed State Government and NICE to implement the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project as originally conceived.

The 9-km link road for linking Bangalore city to BMIC Expressway had a different alignment when they obtained required clearances during 1998. But, in 2001, the alignment was changed in a way that the road passes through Pramod Layout where about 500 houses have been acquired. Now, NICE has demolished a shed and a water tank in the layout, affecting water supply to the layout, the complaint has stated.

PIL Dismissed
The Karnataka High Court rejected a PIL by some villagers of Channasandra who had sought a direction to NICE to put up a connecting bridge for Uttarahalli, Channasandra and Kengeri roads, before it removed the road connecting Channasandra and Kengeri villages.

The petition filed by Y G Panduranga Shetty and several other residents of Channasandra stated that NICE had started digging the road connecting Channasandra and Kengeri villages for the works of BMIC project.

This would lead to villagers losing  access since no other road exists between the villages, they said while seeking provision for an alternative before disturbing the existing road. The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice Ashok B Hinchigeri observed that villagers could file a civil suit or approach district DC and State Government for relief. It dismissed the petition without prejudice to the petitioners’ right to do so.

Source: Deccan Herald

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