HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad High Court has granted relief to the affected farmers whose lands were submerged due to authorities’ negligence, in not properly maintaining the Bekkam tank, diverting it and linking it to the distributaries numbers 30 to 34 of Priyadarshini Jurala Project.
The Court directed the Telangana State principal secretary to irrigation to forthwith initiate land acquisition proceedings and to pay market value compensation and all benefits to the petitioners’ lands under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 within four months.
Besides, the Court directed the authorities concerned to pay costs of `1,000 to each of the petitioners.
“The burden is on the respondent authorities to establish that their actions, did not result in the submergence of lands of the petitioners. They did not discharge this burden of proof. The factum of submergence of most of the lands of the petitioners is established by the visit of the Advocate Commissioner and his report”, the judge noted.