BANGALORE The Supreme Court in an order on August 8 has issued a notice to the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), asking them to clarify whether they have deviated from the original alignment as conceived in the framework agreement (FWA) for the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP).
The apex court issued this notice after hearing a petition filed by farmers from the state who alleged that when the government order dated March 27, 1997 and circular of May 23, 1997 were issued indicating all the government lands (6,956 acres) needed for the BMICP, the controversial survey number 71 (Gottigere village) was not mentioned.
Further, the farmers alleged that as per the EIA Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report submitted on October 5, 1999 by NICE for clearances from the central empowered committee (CEC) and the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), the survey number 71 was not a subject matter.
On June 3, 1997, the Public Works Department (PWD) secretary had written to all the departments showing a list of survey numbers of the government and private lands falling in the BMICP alignment as approved by the government on November 20, 1995, where also the survey number 71 was absent.
The number was again absent when the Bangalore Deputy Commissioner issued a circular on June 12, 1997, with survey numbers of the lands and their surface area.
In a writ petition, the farmers alleged that on October 7, 1999, a new government order was passed issuing a list of the survey numbers which included no. 71 (Gottigere tank) and other 17 tanks newly. They also referred to the Supreme Court order dated April 20, 2006 which asked NICE to abide by the G.O. dated November 20, 1995 and the FWA dated April 3, 1997.
“The SC has asked NICE to go back to the original alignment which NICE has not followed,” claimed Ramayya, a farmer and one of the petitioners.