Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) Managing Director Ashok Kheny sees former prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s meddling as a major hurdle in the implementation of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor.
Kheny said he was planning to pay back the veteran politician in the same coin during the ensuing elections. Though Karnataka Makkala Paksha founder Kheny did not seem to be interested in contesting the elections, he dropped enough hints of trying to ‘make Gowda politically insignificant’ by going all-out to defeat JD(S) candidates. He sought the people’s support for the same.
When asked about the progress of the BMIC project at a programme organised at the Mysore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said that work had come to a standstill. However, he hoped that there would be some progress soon as elections are nearing. “Gowda spends crores to buy votes during elections. I will spend a little to ensure that Gowda’s candidates lose,,” he said
According to him, though all land required for the project was acquired, the government is not ready to give sale deeds. In his speech, Kheny spared none of the major politicians and parties and held them all responsible for the delay of the project which was started 17 years ago.
Targeting Chief Secretary S V Ranganath, he said that he was running the most-corrupt bureaucracy in the country. Training his guns on Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy, he alleged that he had suppressed the fact that his PIL against the BMIC project was pending when he was selected V-C of Gulbarga Central University.
‘BMIC to Restart by December-end’
Kheny expressed confidence of clearing all cases pending against the BMIC project in the Supreme Court by December-end. He said he had won 566 cases regarding the project and 366 more were pending.
