Telangana High Court questions wrongful payment to 'land loser'

Hyderabad: An amount of Rs 55 lakh was wrongfully paid to one R Haricharan Rao as compensation under the Land Acquisition Act in 2017 as Haricharan claimed that a "BURUJU", which is a public structure located in Chintaltana village of erstwhile Sircilla mandal, presently Rajanna-Sircilla district as his own personal property.

The land acquisition proceedings were initiated by the then Andhra Pradesh government in 2008 and the Revenue officials acquired lands of farmers for the 25 tmc ft Mid Manair irrigation project during which Haricharan Rao mentioned "BURUJU" as his own personal property and even gave his house number to the Buruju and by colluding with the Land Acquisition Officer succeeded in getting Rs 55 lakh as compensation, which is under challenge. On Monday, the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice N Tukaramji directed the District Collector, Rajanna-Sircilla to file a status report on wrongful payment the money Haricharan Rao under the Land Acquisition proceedings within three weeks.

Apart from the above direction, the Chief Justice Bench further directed the District Collector to inform the court as to whether a committee has been constituted to look into the aspect of payment of compensation to the land losers and the alleged wrongful payment of compensation of Rs 55 lakh.

The Division Bench was adjudicating the plea filed by R Shankar Rao, a farmer from Shivasai Nagar, Vemulawada, Rajanna-Sircilla district, seeking a probe into the illegal payment of compensation.

Gandra Mohan Rao, senior counsel appearing for the petitioner informed the Division Bench that the Revenue officials in collusion with Haricharan Rao got compensation under the Land Acquisition Act illegally thereby bringing loss to the State exchequer, and sought a direction to probe into this issue.

The matter was adjourned by three weeks.