Telangana govt directed to put on hold acquisition of 240 acres of land

​Hyderabad: The High Court at Hyderabad has ordered the Telangana State government not to interfere in the possession of 240 acres of farmers’ lands at Golivada village under Antargaon mandal in Peddapalli district until all aspects of land acquisition like compensation and rehabilitation under the 2013 Land Acquisition Act are completed.

The division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameen Akhter gave this interim direction while hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by P Praveen Reddy, alleging that the lands of farmers to an extent of 240 acres were being sought to be forcibly taken over by the Revenue authorities without completing the due process of land acquisition.

To this end, the authorities were constructing pump house in the land for Sundilla Barrage under Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project. The blasting and drilling works undertaken for this were severely affecting the possession of farmer, complained the counsel for the petitioner B Rachna Reddy.

She pointed out that although preliminary notification for acquiring these lands was issued in last October itself, the further aspects of acquisition were not being undertaken even as the works under the project had been speeded up. The blasting works were damaging standing crops of red gram, cotton, etc.

The Advocate General K Ramakrishna Reddy objected to the filing of a PIL by a non-farmer. He contended that the authorities are not entering or doing anything related to the 240 acres of land that have been notified under the 2013 Land Acquisition Act.

The authorities are carrying out works in the 106 acres of government lands only as per the law. The petitioner’s counsel contended that the government was claiming 58 acres of land as its own while a petition in High Court was pending related to those lands.

The bench directed the government to file a counter affidavit within two weeks and adjourned the matter.