In response to claims of “illegalities” in the Bangalore-Mysore Corridor Infrastructure Project (BMICP), Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramiah received a letter from Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) Chief and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on Friday. It is common knowledge that the farmers in the Banglore-Mysore area are subjected to the most heinous forms of exploitation under the guise of the BMICP. Our government first conceived the project in 1995 as an infrastructure initiative to facilitate planned urbanization in the Bangalore-Mysore corridor and relieve traffic in Bangalore City.
However, as the Sadana Samiti Report tabled by your government in the House in 2016 meticulously narrated, the project proponent, M/s. Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICEL), has unconscionably diverted its originally conceived public purpose to enable its private profiteering at the expense of the poor farmers of this great state,” the letter read.
“Under Schedule I of the Framework Agreement dated 03.04.1997 (“FWA”), NICEL is entitled only to a total extent of 13,237 acres of private lands for the entire BMICP. But we see that 29,267 acres – more than twice the extent of its entitlement – have been notified under Section 3(1) of the KIAD Act. 13,404 acres in the Bangalore-Mysore region have been under preliminary notification of acquisition for the last 25 years putting the livelihoods of farmers into deep freeze,” it added.
The letter continued, saying as follows: “In 2016, your government testified before the Hon’ble Supreme Court that NICEL has not been implementing the BMICP in compliance with the FWA and the Project Technical Report (“PTR”), which provided the BMICP’s framework. It is on file with your government that the Peripheral Road was not constructed in line with the FWA alignment. It is documented by your government that NICEL is in possession of 554 acres of land beyond its entitlements for the Peripheral Road and that additional land, including the 76 acres under Section 28(4) notification, would be transferred to it.”