The Hindu : Karnataka News : `Return excess land acquired for BMIC'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 31, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

`Return excess land acquired for BMIC'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, MARCH 30. The Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project (BMICP) is set to turn into the biggest land scandal to hit Bangalore, and the Government must immediately correct the wrongs, restore the lands acquired from poor farmers, and punish guilty officials who have colluded with the project promoters, the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), non-governmental organisations fighting the project have demanded.

The groups, lead by the Environment Support Group (ESG), today submitted a representation with extensive documentation and "proof of the gross abuse of power" which led to the dispossession of poor farmers and caused "extraordinary losses" to the State.

ESG's Leo Saldanha told presspersons after submitting the document to the Chief Secretary, K.K. Misra, that the Special Deputy Commissioner, KIADB (Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board) - BMICP, Anees Siraj, in a letter dated May 22, 2004, stated that 29,258 acres of land have been notified for acquisition for the project, which is 10,945 acres more than the original 18,000 acres agreed upon.

The letter said: "Land acquisition notifications were issued based on the requirement indicated by the promoter company and not on the basis of any technical drawings or maps as approved by the Government in the Public Works Department."

Mr. Saldanha said the statement makes a mockery of the process of planning, acquisition and compensation.

Highway work

Mr. Saldanha said a decade after BMIC was approved, the work of converting Mysore Road (SH-17) into a four-lane highway is nearing completion, and similar work is being expedited on Kanakapura Road. The BMIC townships on the other hand, have been designed for the rich, and are nowhere near initiation. The toll-based limited access expressway, meanwhile, seems to have achieved nothing but land grabbing, Mr. Saldanha alleged and wondered whether the corridor is required at all.

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