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NICE threatens legal action against Gowda

DH News Service Bangalore:

A jubilant NICE has hit back. It has demanded H D Revanna’s resignation and questioned K C Reddy’s appointment as adviser to the PWD minister.

Within hours of winning the legal battle, the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Limited (NICE) — the promoters of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Project — declared that they would seek legal action against a host of bureaucrats and politicians including Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Deve Gowda, for carrying out a “malicious misinformation campaign” against the project.

They further demanded the resignation of Public Works Minister and Deve Gowda’s son H D Revanna on moral grounds.

Addressing a press conference in Bangalore on Tuesday, NICE Managing Director Ashok Kheny argued that Mr Revanna should resign for “misrepresenting facts to the the government”.

However, Mr Kheny did not make clear what kind of legal action would be sought against Mr Gowda and others. “Let the dust settle down. We will prepare a list of persons against whom we should proceed and the list would be a long one,” he said and remarked that the company was made to undergo a trauma in the last one year.

He also argued that the appointment of K C Reddy as advisor to the energy and PWD minister, was unconstitutional and illegal.

Pointing out that Mr Reddy has been given a minister of state status, Mr Kheny wondered how could he hold the post and access government files without taking oath of secrecy.

Mr Kheny said the project cost had escalated by about 20 per cent mainly due to increase in the cost of construction material. However, he was confident that the company would make good the escalation by increasing efficiency in construction.

Mr Kheny said the entire project including the Bangalore-Mysore Expressway and five townships would be completed, by August 15, 2007.

Besides, three different stretches of four-lane roads in and around Bangalore — a 8.5-km stretch from PES college to Banashankari 6th Phase; 20-km stretch from Mysore Road to Bannerghatta Road and a small stretch from Sompura (near BSK 6th phase) towards Bidadi — would be opened to traffic from August 15 this year.

Mr Kheny hailed the Indian judiciary as the best in the world. He said he was delighted by the court verdict not only because it went in the company’s favour, but also created a ray of hope that “no amount of malicious misinformation by people with vested interests, bureaucrats and land mafia... will hurt the BMIC project”.