Denying that he had a role in allotting excess land to the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) when he was the Chairman of the NICE project, Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar, on Saturday, urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to order a probe into the issue in a bid to clear the confusion and set the record straight. In a letter to the Chief Minister, a copy of which was released here, Mr. Shivakumar, referring to the allegations made by JD (S) national president H.D. Deve Gowda, that he (Mr. Shivakumar) had allotted more land than required to the NICE project, alleged that it was an attempt by the former to malign him. The Urban Development Department, headed by him in the past, had only powers with regard to land use regulations, not land grants. Therefore, the issue of granting excess land would not arise, he said. The BJP too had joined the issue with a view to creating instability in the government led by Mr. Siddaramaiah, he alleged.
