BMIC updates - Guv proposes, EC disposes

EC decision is unfair. Government wants the politicians to decide the project and not the people who badly need especially the peripheral and link roads.

This is a wise intervention by the EC. It was not for the current govt., with its limited mandate and limited tenure to decide on this in a hurried manner that too after the dates for the elections had by then been announced. The contempt petition is not returnable until august. in all this we should not forget that there has been ghoopla: from that hindu report... The allegation of excess land pertains only to the first phase of the project adjoining Bangalore. The first stage includes: 41 km of peripheral road and 9.8 km link road requiring a total 2,471 acres of land; 12 km of expressway requiring 896 acres; and a township at Bidadi on 2,775 acres. The total land required for the first stage is 6,142 acres. According to government records, NICE is already in possession of about 2,896 acres land for peripheral and link road components which is in excess by 425 acres over the required 2,471 acres approved by the High Court and the Supreme Court. The sources said that the Executive Committee has allegedly ignored this fact and considered only the land required for the entire project (20,193 acre) based on a letter submitted by NICE. As such there is no dispute on the total land required for the project. hindu & DH have been dispassionate. hindu has also carried good human interest stories that show NICE in good light. i dont make much of the SC and HC admonishment of the state too seriously. the govt is not a feudal/tribal body running to preserve some mythical ijjat. it has to do what it has to do. there is no one govt that will do more than the other in this issue. both kheny and gowda have divided the govt - babu's, lawyers, etc.., into two on this issue. that extra addition of land is legal due to a note is fine. but the question is why was it necessary to add that note, and why was the additional land not in the original framework document. just where are the final maps? shouldn't you be finalizing maps and decide whether to build on or around the gottigere, before you dig up anything? the only good thing that came out of guv, was the note that this might have to be settled outside the courts between the two parties. my only hope is that this settlement is transparent and involves the elder gowda as one of the parties at the table. he does not have any interest for the farmers or the state, but he hates NICE enough, for whatever reason, that he will ensure that they cannot run with the ball. and that is the best we can hope and having others at the table will ensure that the gowda's dont make a mudde out of the issue. you guys tell me, how is a park and a film city part of the BMIC project?

Saw this in the TOI as well.  BMIC expressway was cleared.  I think I like the Peripheral Road idea.  But the whole expressway - I tend to agree with TS.  I don't know if this is an unqualified blessing.  The land dealings sound murky and I don't know whether wetlands have been taken for this, etc.

Srivathsa

From Star of Mysore ( http://www.starofmysore.com ) Producing the article in full here because SOM does not maintain archives. BMIC PROJECT WORK FROM MYSORE SIDE EVEN WITHOUT MUDA'S NOD: KHENY Mysore, Aug. 13 (BRS&KK)- In spite of Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) not according permission to acquire the land needed for the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project, the work will start from Mysore side, declared Ashok Kheny, MD of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE). He was speaking during an interaction programme organised by Mysore Hoteliers Association in Hotel Paradise, Yadavagiri here yesterday. "The work on the project will begin from Mysore side only. MUDA has not given its permission to acquire the land required for the work. It cannot directly transfer the land to private agencies. First, Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) should take possession of the land and later transfer it to our company. But the officials had demanded bribe. I have done correspondence with the government on the issue 40,000 times. I will definitely not wait for MUDA's permission. Work on the project will be launched on the notified land," Kheny explained. "The project will be expedited to complement the human and natural resources needs of the next generation, apart from creating five new townships. Cold storages will be constructed near the townships for the benefit of farmers. In the jurisdiction of the land given by the farmers for the BMIC project, 149 villages will be established. In addition, slums will be got rid of. Fuel will be saved as a result of plying 5,000 buses and 40,000 vehicles on the Expressway," Kheny explained. Taking part as a chief guest, Star of Mysore Editor K.B. Ganapathy said "educated as well as the poor are unavoidable for the politicians. They do not allow progress either by their own efforts or by preventing others. They do not provide opportunities for others who are prepared to work for progress". He gave a call to the intellectuals to stand against such politicians. Andolana Editor Rajashekara Koti, also taking part as a chief guest, said that the project should have been supported from the start. Kheny should pay farmers the ruling market rate for their lands. Hotel Owners Association President M. Rajendra, Vice-President C. Narayanagowda, and Trust Chairman K. Ramvittal Das were present.