HYDERABAD: In a relief to the farmers of Penumaka village in Tadepalli mandal in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, the High Court here on Monday directed the land acquisition authorities concerned, including the Capital Region Development Authority and the Guntur district collector, to maintain status quo with regard to the land acquisition in Penumaka village till issuance of final notification after taking into consideration the objections raised by the farmers concerned.
Justice AV Sesha Sai was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by about 250 farmers of Penumaka village challenging the preliminary notification issued on April 11 this year by the Guntur district collector for acquiring lands of the petitioners for the new capital of AP and issuance of notice directing them to be present in person while conducting survey.
The petitioners urged the court to issue directions to the authorities to conduct a fresh Social Impact Assessment study of their lands in consonance with the spirit, objectives and provisions of The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 and The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement(Social Impact Assessment and Consent) Rules, 2014.
Petitioners’ counsel Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy pointed out that the officials had failed to follow the procedure contemplated under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 prior to issuance of preliminary notification for land acquisition. Under Section 8 of the Act 2013 there was no provision for precast and prefabricated Social Impact Assessment.
In fact, the authorities did not consider the objections of the farmers of the village whose lands were going to be acquired before issuing the notification, he pointed out.
AP state’s special counsel D Ramesh told the court that it was a preliminary notification and that 60 days were required under Section 15 of the Act 2013 to receive objections from the land owners and to examine them. Final notification would be issued under Section 19 of the Act 2013 only after completing the process under Section 15 of the Act, he noted.
After recording the statement of the special counsel, Justice Sesha Sai directed the district collector and CRDA authorities to follow the procedure under the Act 2013 while considering the objections of the petitioners farmers and in making Social Impact Assessment.
While disposing of the petitions, the judge directed the authorities not to dispossess the farmers of their lands and to allow them to continue with their agricultural activities till completion of the process.