The Special Lokayukta Court here on Thursday ordered that the amount collected as toll by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Ltd. (NICE) over the past two years be handed over to the Karnataka government, failing which the properties of the company equivalent to the toll collected will be attached.
The Special Lokayukta has ordered an inquiry into senior leaders of the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular), including three former Chief Ministers, for the alleged large scale fraud in the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project.
The court’s order follows a complaint by activist T.J. Abraham, alleging that the Bangalore-Mysore expressway was made of bitumen instead of concrete.
Keywords: NICE project, Lokayukta probe, toll fee issue
This is bad example of activist judiciary. A case is filled alleging corruption. It should
be duly investigated, charged in court, guilty punished and improvements to the
systems made so these things do not happen again. However, the project was
implemented between private and public partnership. There are agreements in place.
By asking the private company to pay 2 years of toll collected to the government is
too much of a stretch. What is the purpose? To make the private company and the
investors and shareholders go bankrupt so government can take over the NICE
roads. Despite many roadblocks by politicians and bureaucrats we have a
comfortable road. This business model was supposed to be the way forward. It
certainly needs fine tuning; but one sided activism would suppress private public
partnership.
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