AP High Court stops payment for lands acquired in East Godavari district

Nelapadu (Amaravati): The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday issued an interim order instructing the government not to pay the amount until further orders for the land acquired for the distribution of house sites to the poor in East Godavari district.

A farmer of Burugupudi in the district filed a writ petition alleging that though the cost of land was Rs 7.20 lakh per acre, the government fixed the value at Rs 45 lakh per acre of the land, six times the original value.

B S N V Prasad, advocate for the petitioner, contended that the officials and the political leaders colluded and wasted the public money. He pointed out that the 20 ft gorges were in the land which would cost hundreds of crores of rupees to fill them.

Additional Advocate General Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy cited the cases of South Africa in the land acquisition to which the advocate for petitioner said when the Supreme Court judgments were available here what is the point in referring the cases in foreign countries.

The Addl AG sought time to file the affidavit. It may be recalled that the state government prepared an action plan to provide house sites to 42,742 persons of Rajamahendravaram urban and rural.

However, when the land was not available there, the officials acquired the low-level land at Torredu and Korukonda mandals in spite of the objections from the water resources department.