Supreme court detects Karnataka's problem: It’s in coma

“The state is in a coma,” the Supreme Court (SC) slammed the BJP-ruled Karnataka government for being diffident in acquiring land for a project, fearing law and order problems.

The top court on Tuesday said chief minister BS Yeddyurappa had no business to be in power if his government could not acquire land for fear of law and order problems, not even for the construction of roads for the state’s project.

“Why have you not acquired land for the roads? It is for a public cause. You seem to be in a state of coma,” a bench of justices, VS Sirpurkar, RM Lodha and TS Thakur, said.

The court was hearing a lawsuit regarding acquisition of private land for the multi-crore Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP).

“Why are you not acquiring the land? Where is the question of law and order problem? Then don’t rule the state if you are afraid. You can’t survive if you are afraid,” the court said.

The state’s advocate general Ashok Harnahalli sought to explain the slow pace of acquisition, saying the government is a little circumspect in acquiring additional land as farmers could create law and order problems and the administration had to be sensitive to such issues.

SC’s outburst came during the hearing of a petition that said despite a court order the government had not started the acquisition process.

The court had in an earlier order asked the state to pay Rs5 lakh as costs to Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), the developers.