BMIC controversy: Vijay Mallya flays Kumaraswamy

Bangalore, June 16: Liquor baron and Rajya Sabha member Vijay Mallya today slammed Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy for ''unnecessarily creating a controversy'' over the multi-crore Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project being developed by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise.

Addressing newspersons on the sidelines of the India Innovation Summit 2006, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries here, the UB Group Chairman wondered why politicians across the country developed such an attitude.

Coming down heavily on Mr Kumaraswamy and his father and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda for ''raising objections against every major infrastructure project,'' he advised them to concentrate on various burning issues being faced by the people.

He asked Mr Kumaraswamy to ''spend his time and energy for productive purposes, instead ot targetting developers of infrastructure projects.'' Mr Mallya recalled that Mr Gowda had earlier dubbed IT major Infosys Technologies as a real estate company and tried to tarnish its image and said such kind of remarks would not augur well for flow of investments and boosting the confidence of entrepreneurs.

Referring to reports that not even 15 per cent of the resources earmarked for development of rural areas and poverty alleviation was reaching the targetted sections, he told the Chief Minister to devote more time to address these problems. If people at the helm of affairs succeeded in reducing government fund pilferage to about 40 to 50 per cent from the present 85 per cent, the scenario in the country would change for the better, he opined.

UNI