JD(S) to spearhead protests against Ashok Kheny

BENGALURU: The JD(S) on Wednesday said it would take to the streets protesting against Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) managing director Ashok Kheny against whom action has not yet been taken by the Siddaramaiah government even though he was indicted by a legislative assembly house committee last year on allegations of misappropriation.

The decision comes in the backdrop of the

South Bidar MLA

having merged his Karnataka Makkala Paksha (KMP) with the Congress earlier this week and chief minister Siddaramaiah saying the law will takes its course.

“Now, the report has been prepared with law minister T B Jayachandra at the helm of the committee with not a single dissenting voice against

Kheny

being indicted. Has the Congress no shame inviting the same man to join their party?” questioned former Prime Minister Gowda.

Gowda launched a scathing attack against Kheny. “The project is one of the biggest frauds in the country. There are scores of example of how people were cheated during the construction of the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway. We’re not going to let this man and the company get away. We’ll launch a statewide protest until it reaches a logical conclusion,” said Gowda.

Gowda, who had launched a huge protest in 2002, recalled that the entire lot of 16 BJP ministers had boycotted a cabinet meeting wherein a bill was to be proposed to curb the extent of NICE’s project cost in 2006-07 when his son H D Kumaraswamy was the chief minister.

“Yeddyurappa and others did not attend that meeting and the matter was deferred after Kumaraswamy and I discussed it on the phone,” said Gowda, indirectly hitting out at Yeddyurappa as having no moral authority to comment on Kheny.