Andhra High Court orders government not to use University and School lands for house sites

After receiving a major blow from Supreme Court on Monday, Jagan Mohan Reddy government has suffered another shock in Andhra Pradesh over the distribution of house site pattas to the poor. The High Court has ordered that the poor should not be given house site pattas at the places belonging to government schools, colleges and universities and issued interim orders to this effect. The High Court was hearing a petition filed alleging misappropriation of land for tribal schools in Visakhapatnam, Thirumalagiri. On this occasion, the next hearing was adjourned for 8 weeks by issuing interim orders giving lands in the places of schools, colleges and universities in the state as house deeds.

The state government has decided to give house site pattas to 30 lakh poor people in Andhra Pradesh. It also includes the Amaravati lands. Also, there are several disputed lands in the state and several legal implications regarding Amaravati lands and other lands. There was a break for the program when the Amaravati farmers went to court over the Jagan government's decision to distribute house site pattas in Amaravati for the poor.

In this backdrop, the Jagan government moved Supreme Court over the High Court decision where it received bitter experience. The distribution of house pattas is still being postponed in the wake of such issues. The program was scheduled on YS Rajasekhar Reddy's birth anniversary on July 8. However, the government postponed in the wake of the court cases. Later it was then planned to distribute on the occasion of Independence Day on August 15, which was again postponed.