BENGALURU: Deve Gowda urges CM to take back land from NICE

Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister and JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda urged the state government to take over the Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Project (BMIC) from NICE and take back 13,404 acres of land. Speaking to reporters on Friday, the former PM said that he had written a letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asking him to take over the project, but he did not take any action.

“I don’t know what his (Siddaramaiah’s) difficulty is. He talks about the poor, but he fails to take action when land of poor farmers was taken for the project,” Gowda said. If Siddaramaiah fails to take action in that regard it will remain a black spot on his political career, he said, adding that he had written to the CM in October last year explaining the need to take up the project.

The former PM said a House committee headed by former law minister TB Jayachandra had also submitted a report asking the government to take back land worth more than Rs 7,000 crore. Gowda said that JDS will continue the fight for poor farmers.

The former PM targeted Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar. Gowda said, the people of the state know how much money has gone from the state for the recent assembly elections in other states. He accused the Congress government of playing vendetta politics by reopening old cases against kar sevak Shrikant Pujari in Hubli.

“As partners of the NDA, we are free to express our views on this issue. We are committed to defeat Congress in Karnataka. “The Congress era will end in the state under the leadership of Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar.”