Southern States - Karnataka   

Deve Gowda's charge causes a flutter

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Dec. 22. Although the former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, has given a political angle to the land intensive Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project by levelling allegations against the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, the role of the Janata Dal Government over promoting the same cannot be glossed over.

Mr. Gowda's allegations levelled at a press conference here on Sunday are stated to have caused a flutter in the Government circles but there was no official reaction to them. "Facts speak for themselves" was the stand taken by informed sources in the Government.

Although the project had come under attack from environmentalists and to some extent from the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha factions, the major political parties had not spoken out on it.

At a press conference on Sunday, Mr. Gowda said that it was a project promoted with an eye on commerce in real estate than one to facilitate quick travel between Bangalore and Mysore.

It is known that it was the J.H. Patel Government, which gave an impetus to the project. At that time the present Chief Secretary was the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister (J.H. Patel).

The green signal for the project was given when Mr. Deve Gowda himself was the Chief Minister. In February 1995, Mr. Gowda signed an MoU with the then Governor of the U.S. State of Massachusetts William Weld, who had led a trade mission to the State.

The then promoters of the project, the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) and the India International Infrastructure Engineers Ltd. had hailed the signing of the MoU as one, which "ushered in a new era of public-private cooperation and coordination in the development of major infrastructure projects in Karnataka and India."

At that time, the members of the consortium, which had been formed to build the project, were the Kalyani Group of companies, VHB International Ltd., and SAB International Ltd.

What has not gone unnoticed is that only five days ago, the Karnataka High Court partly upheld the acquisition of land for the project. Justice Chandrashekaraiah of the High Court dismissed a batch of writ petitions challenging the acquisition of land for the construction of the project by NICE. Mr. Justice Chandrashekaraiah allowed the acquisition of land by the Government for the construction of the peripheral road, link road, service road and ramps.

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