The former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president, H.D. Deve Gowda, on Friday welcomed the decision of the Yeddyurappa government to begin a judicial probe, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, vis-à-vis land allotment since 1994 and wanted the Karnataka government to include the controversial Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project too in the terms of reference of the commission.
Describing the BMIC project as the second biggest scam after the 2G spectrum allocation, Mr. Gowda told journalists here that he and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy, the former Chief Minister, had brought out voluminous documents to prove that the BMIC project had turned out to be “real estate loot” worth Rs.30,000 crore and would further congest Bangalore. He had every right to make such a demand since the BJP government had fixed 1994 as the cut-off date when he was the Chief Minister. “Let the probe show if I have taken any pecuniary benefits, either in cash, cheque or in the form of shares,” he said.
Applications under the RTI Act had revealed that Mr. Yeddyurappa's office had taken away the files related to the questionable land denotifications and Mr. Gowda wondered whether they were summoned for producing it before the Judicial Commission or for a possible destruction of evidence.
He regretted that in India “when a scam is in the making, nobody bothers. Only when things go out of control, we take notice.” Mr. Yeddyurappa was a past master in blaming previous regimes whenever he and his government were caught in some scam.
Like the 2G issue, soon the BMIC project would become fait accompli for the people of this country as NICEL, the implementing agency of the project, would have sold the lands not due to it to the third parties, Mr. Gowda said.
