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UF leader demanded Rs 500 million bribe to clear Bangalore international airport: Hegde

Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde today alleged that someone in the previous United Front regime had sought Rs 500 million from the Tata group of industries to clear the proposed international airport at Devanahalli, on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Addressing the media in Bangalore, Hegde declined to disclose the name of the person who, he said, did not know that the Tata group never paid bribes for their projects. The Tatas refused to oblige, he added.

The airport project had been in the pipeline for over 15 years, he said and added that there should be some hidden reason for the delay in sanctioning the project.

Hegde asserted that the airport would be cleared by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre.

He said former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, who was the then chief minister of Karnataka, had mooted the project. The project was to be promoted by the Tata Consortium with participation by Singapore companies. Land was acquired for the project.

However, when Deve Gowda moved to the Centre, he did not clear it even as it was suggested that the project should be shifted to Bididi on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, Hegde added.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel today asked the Tata Consortium, which was disappointed over the "disgusting" delay in the construction of the airport, not to withdraw from the project.

After a meeting with the representatives of the Consortium, he told the media that the state government would persuade the Centre to clear the project.

He would hold a meeting with Civil Aviation Minister Ananth Kumar -- the MP from Bangalore South -- in this regard.

Referring to the latest proposal to upgrade the existing HAL airport into an international one, he said the Consortium was not agreeable to have a parallel service.

He expressed surprise over the latest proposal as the civil aviation and defence ministries, HAL and other agencies concerned had agreed to the Devanahalli airport project.

The project, which is hanging fire for over two years, has been agreed in principle by three prime ministers but getting delayed at the ministerial and secretary levels, he regretted.

Pointing out that a small state like Kerala had two international airports while Karnataka had no airport, he said he had requested Union ministers Ramakrishna Hegde and George Fernandes to get the project cleared. The delay was an injustice to the state, he added.

UNI