Bangalore: JDS leader and former Prime
Minister H D Devegowda on Thursday urged Karnataka Chief Minister B
S Yeddyurapa to immediately convene a special assemblly
session to discuss `irregularities` that have taken place in
the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project,
which he has been opposing.
"If Yeddyurappa has any concern for the state, farmers
and if he wants to keep up his promise of convening special
session to debate on scams, he should immediately call a
special session on BMIC project", told reporters here.
Gowda who has been opposing the 111-km express highway
project being executed by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor
Enterprise (NICE), sought to distance himself from
controversies that has engulfed the project, including
allotment of 20,000 acres of land.
Gowda who signed the MOU for the project in 1995 when
he was the Chief Minister, said "that time NICE was not in
picture. I signed with a consortium of two foreign firms and
an Indian company".
"Let there be a debate on the changes that the project
witnessed under successive governments after I left the state
to become Prime Minister", he said.
Gowda also denied that he signed an agreement to provide
for leasing the land at the rate of Rs 10 per acre, but said
the original MOU had a clause for purchasing land at
prevailing market rates by project promoters.
Bureau Report
