The High Court on Monday extended the interim stay of the bidding
process for civil works to form BDA’s Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout till
March 19.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela
and Justice B V Nagarathna asked the petitioners V Manjunatha and others
to file a rejoinder to the BDA’s objections.

They have challenged
BDA’s notification inviting tenders for civil works (like laying roads)
without taking possession of the whole area. Senior counsel B V
Acharya, representing the BDA submitted that there is no illegality in
respect of allotting the tenders to the contractors. “They were the
lowest bidders. More than 50 per cent of the land has been acquired and
the remaining land will be acquired in the due course of the tender
period, which is two years. Any litigation to that effect will be
mitigated,” he argued.

Earlier during the hearing, the petitioners
contended that the BDA had issued notification for acquisition of a
large extent of land measuring 4,043.27 acres. The Acquisition
Department had handed over approximately 1,441 acres to the BDA. As per
the abstract as on February 16, only in 1,356.22 acres’ possession has
been handed over to the Engineering Section.

“The BDA, without
taking possession of the entire acquired land and without approval of
the layout plan, has proceeded to form the roads in the layout. Roads
cannot be laid without taking the possession of the entire land,” they
argued.

Further, they contended that the BDA has negotiated the
rate for five packages in excess of `1,208.89 crore of the amount put to
tenders.

“If the tender is accepted for higher rates, the burden will be shifted to the general public,” they maintained.

When
the BDA invited tenders in 2010, it said that it needed Rs 991 crore to
carry out civil works. But in the recent notification, it stated that
it needs Rs 2,200 crore for this. “The tender amount has been raised to
collect funds for the elections,” they alleged.

They further
argued that the BDA has been allotting works only through short tenders.
However,  for the first time, pre-qualification bids were offered in
the Rs 100- Rs 250 crore category combining the entire project without
even naming the projects, they charged.

Government told to file fresh affidavit in statue case

Bangalore:
The High Court on Monday directed the state government to file a fresh
affidavit in connection with a civil contempt petition filed by city
based-advocate A V Amarnath against Chief Secretary S V Ranganath and MD
of BMRCL N Sivasailam for not following the court’s directions on
shifting Dr B R Ambedkar statue to some other place on Vidhana Soudha
premises.

A Division Bench headed by Justice N K Patil passed the
order after Rangananth filed an affidavit seeking the quashing of the
petition as the order was modified.

In the affidavit, Ranganath
stated that the court’s order on December 12, 2012 has been modified
after the government filed a petition seeking more time and even that
case was also disposed of with the directions to shift the statue. He
sought more time to shift the statue and the dismissal of the contempt
petition. The Bench directed the government to file a fresh petition
regarding the steps it has taken so far and adjourned the case.