NICE project: Gowda,Krishna,BSY face probe

A special Lok Ayukta court on Thursday ordered an investigation into the alleged usurping of agricultural land in the name of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project

A special Lok Ayukta court on Thursday ordered an investigation into the alleged usurping of agricultural land in the name of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project through the tenures of former Karnataka chief ministers H D Deve Gowda,S M Krishna and B S Yeddyurappa on the basis of a private complaint filed by a social activist.

The social activist and political aspirant,T J Abraham,had named 105 people including former prime minister Gowda,External Affairs Minister Krishna,former chief minister Yeddyurappa and promoters of the project Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise in a complaint filed in July this year.

The court has ordered a probe at the level of a deputy superintendent of police against 30 of the 105 persons accused by the complainant of being a part of the alleged conspiracy to illegally acquire nearly 7000 acres of land for the jinxed project proposed in 1995.

The others to be probed by the order of the Lok Ayukta court are Ashok Kheny,the managing director of NICE,former Karnataka Congress ministers R V Deshpande and D K Shivakumar,current public works minister C M Udasi,promoter of the project and industrialist Baba Kalyani.

The original signatory on the memorandum of understanding for the project,William Weld,the former governor of Massachusetts,is among those to be probed as per the Lok Ayukta order. The courts order comes despite a Supreme Court stay on a similar investigation ordered by the state high court.

Only 42 km of a peripheral road has been completed under the project agreement to date. Work on the main 111 km express highway which is at the heart of the project has not taken off on account of a quagmire of legal disputes over acquisition of land and alleged illegalities surrounding it.

The cost of the project was Rs 522 crore when first proposed but is now estimated over Rs 5000 crore,the private complaint filed in the Lok Ayukta court has stated.