The sad story of NICE

India once had a Prime Minister named HD Devegowda. Mr. Devegowda was the leader of the United Front, a brief political coalition that existed in the mid-90's after the end of tenure of the PV Narasimha Rao Government.

The United Front Government was a short term hodgepodge to take advantage of the fact that neither the BJP not the Congress could muster up enough numbers to form the Government. So this UF government had 2 or three prime ministers, and its cabinet was full of who'se who of all regional parties. Heck, its Defense Minister was Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, the current Chief Monster of Ulta Pradesh.

It wasn't long before Mr. Devegowda's spot in the national limelight was over, a term in which, more than anything else, he was famous for two things, taking his entire extended family on foreign trips with him, and falling asleep during meetings and Parliament sessions.

So after his stint at the center, Mr. Gowda returned to his home state of Karnataka and was the big man on campus. In the early 2000's, Karnataka's Chief Minister was S.M Krishna, a very popular CM from the Congress. Mr. Krishna could be credited with a lot of Bangalore's development, and his favorable view of the business community. Thus when he went, questions were raised about how friendly the new government will be. I am not too much in the know about Karnataka politics, but I do know that Gowda hated Krishna for his popularity, even though they were supposed to be allies in the state government. Gowda is the leader of the Janata Dal (Secular).

In the 80's, when Bangalore was just witnessing a boom, there was a plan to link Bangalore to its satellite town of Mysore with a 6 lane expressway, with brand new, modern townships and industrial complexes throughout the distance, and the executors of the project, the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Limited, were given huge tracts of land for the purpose. Although the plan was on the drawing board, it couldnt take off due to lack of funds, until around 1995. Although Janata Dal supported the project, Mr. Gowda was against giving so much farm land to the company, and led a campaign of insisting that the corridor only stick to building the expressway and nothing else. So a committee was constituted and they said that the company was indeed given excessive land. Nothing was done about it at the time, and poor NICE has been in a roller coaster ride ever since.

Now Devegowda's son is the CM, and although he made all the noises that he is unlike his father and pro-reform and promised to take up major infra projects, the influence of his father on his actions and words is apparent. The Company went to the Supreme Court and the court ordered the government to remove all hurdles from the path of the company and let them execute the project, but till today, the GoK is adamant in its stand, and is unwilling to let this company do anything. So basically, they have decided to go against the Supreme Court order. One way they are doing so is by bringing in a legislation in their puny legislature, just like their brother monkeys did in the Delhi Legislature after the Supreme Court order on the illegal encroachments.

JD (S) launches ad blitz against NICE

Launching a campaign against Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), the JD (S) has issued an advertisement in the media alleging that the promoters of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) are planning to illegally raise Rs 4,500 crore by selling excess land of 975 acres and buffer land of 749 acres around Bangalore in the implementation of the first phase of the project itself.

Though NICE was spending only Rs 5.37 crore for constructing a km of road under the first phase involving 41-km peripheral road, 9.8-km link road and 12-km expressway, in reality the state would have spent Rs 72.46 crore per km due to the selling of excess land by the NICE, the party argued.

The company which did not even have construction equipment was implementing the project through sub-leasing arrangement, the party alleged.

JD(S) claims
*Only 2,471 acres required as per court order for the first phase of BMIC project, but NICE already possesses 2,894 acres
*NICE still demanding an additional 791 acres around the peripheral road for the first phase. *NICE spending only Rs 333 crore for construction of the first phase and planning to make a profit of Rs 4,500 crore by selling the excess land under this phase.
*NICE bought lands from farmers at Rs 3-8 lakh per acre; now planning to sell them off at Rs 3-8 crore per acre
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K'taka Govt's cheque to NICE bounces

The cheque issued by the Karnataka Government to the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), the promoters of the controversial Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC), towards payment of penalty imposed by the Supreme Court has bounced, allegedly due to insufficent funds.

The Supreme Court had slapped a penalty of Rs five lakh on the State Government in its ruling on April 20, terming the Government's appeal against the High Court order, which upheld the acquisition of 20,193 acres by NICE for the project, as ''frivolous arguments.''
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I am not trying to scuttle BMIC project, says Deve Gowda

Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Deve Gowda has denied pressuring the Karnataka Government led by his son, H.D. Kumaraswamy, into scuttling the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project by not only denying more land but also taking away land already provided for the project.

Stressing that he will not give up his fight, he said: "I will never compromise on the rights of the poor, Dalits, the downtrodden and farmers, whom I represent. I am not opposed to BMIC on BOOT. But, I will not allow BOOT to be turned into open loot."
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I read somewhere that this project is the most scrutinized project ever in the history of the country. There have been dozens of government orders passed on it, dozens of committees have been formed to look into it, and dozens and dozens of campaigns have been started for and against this project. The politicians in Karnataka have tried various methods to scuttle this project, including character assasination of the company head, and getting their party workers to ransack project lands and hurt officials. With the politicians of Karnataka determined to see that Bangalore loses its position as the leading business destination, there is no doubt that numerous vested interests have worked overtime to see that such a potentially beneficial project does not see the light of day for some reason or the other.