BENGALURU: Calling it the biggest scam in the country, Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy alleged that the NICE project is an over Rs 3 lakh crore scam.
Chief Minister DK Shivakumar must take action against NICE Managing Director Ashok Kheny or else resign, taking moral responsibility, Kumaraswamy said.
Presenting a series of documents at a press conference in Bengaluru, Kumaraswamy said the project was originally conceived in the 1990s as a private infrastructure initiative under the Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) model. This was approved in the cabinet when HD Deve Gowda was the CM.
He said the government had initially approved a framework under which the private developer was required to bear the cost of construction and land acquisition and recover its investment through toll collection and development of townships.
In 1996, when JH Patel was the CM, the cabinet approved the development of a toll road by acquiring 6999 acres of land and 13,194 acres for a township development. However, in 2004, when DK Shivakumar was the Urban Development Minister in SM Krishna's cabinet, the project alignment was changed without the cabinet’s approval, he alleged.
As the Urban Development Minister, Shivakumar became the chairman of the Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP). Kumaraswamy alleged that they deviated from the original alignment to approve 9468 acres for the toll road and the remaining 10,724 acres for the township development.
Kumaraswamy also alleged that the project had been used to facilitate sale, mortgage and development of land originally acquired or notified for the infrastructure corridor. "When I was CM, in 2007 the cabinet took a decision stating that the developer should not be entitled to sell or alienate land forming part of the road and interchange portions of the BMICP,'' he said. However, he alleged that several parcels of land had subsequently been sold or developed through private companies and joint ventures.
Some lands notified for the BMICP was subsequently purchased, converted and developed, Kumaraswamy said and alleged that a land associated with Shivakumar’s brother and former MP DK Suresh was developed by a private builder.
The Union Minister also released land records, claiming that some lands notified for the project and acquired from farmers were later purchased by private individuals as well as developers and the NICE had given NoC.
Congress hits back:
Hitting back at the Union Minister, Water Resources Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy questioned why Kumaraswamy, who is making allegations over the project, did not take any action when he was the CM twice. “This shows his double standard,'' he alleged.
