Construction of Khammam Collectorate complex stayed

Hyderabad: The High Court at Hyderabad has stayed construction activity for a new Collectorate complex in Khammam for a period of one week. It will take up further hearing after a week of a Public Interest Litigation petition filed by one M Vijay Bhasker, an advocate from Khammam, challenging the construction of the complex.

The division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijaya Lakshmi gave this direction on Tuesday, while hearing the PIL petition. The counsel for the petitioner submitted to the bench that despite having a good office in the centre of the town, the government was embarking on this project, wasting crores of rupees of public money. He also challenged the grant of exemption by Telangana State government for conducting Social Impact Assessment (SIA) study before acquiring lands for building this new Collectorate complex.

The 2013 Land Acquisition Act mandates that SIA must be conducted before issuing of preliminary notification for acquisition of lands with public participation. The Telangana State government by its amendment to the Act in 2017 gave itself power to exempt some projects from SIA process, if they fell under infrastructure projects.

The PIL petitioner questioned as to how the Collectorate building would fall under infrastructure project. The bench wanted the government to explain its stand on this issue and adjourned the case by a week directing that no further construction activity be taken up until the next date of hearing.