Cheque to NICE bounced due to Bank's fault: K'taka Govt

Bangalore, June 15 (UNI) The Karnataka government today clarified that a cheque issued by it to Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), promoters of the controversial Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project, bounced on June 13 due to a fault committed by the bank and not due to insufficient funds.

The incident had put the government in an embarrassing spot. The cheque for Rs five lakh was issued towards payment of costs of litigation to NICE as ordered by the Supreme Court. The Apex court, dismissing the governments appeal over the order passed by the High Court in favour of the expressway promoter, had asked the government to make payment to the company towards litigation costs.

In official release here, Mr P B Mahishi, Principal Secretary, Public Works Department, which had issued the cheque, said it was returned due to some misunderstanding on the part of the treasury branch of State Bank of Mysore at the time of re-conciliation and not due to insufficient funds.

However, the PWD had made the payment through a demand draft. A detailed investigation about the lapse on the part of the bank was underway and the bank was expected to submit a report to the government soon, he said.

Holding the bank responsible for the mess up, he said the government was in no way responsible for non payment of the cheque.

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