HYDERABAD: Officials of the Andhra Pradesh government had registered cases against some labourers in order to protect the real persons behind the illegal mining at Kesanupally, Nadikudi, Konanki, Piduguralla and other areas in Guntur, a petitioner has told the High Court.
Former MLC TGV Krishna Reddy has recently filed a miscellaneous petition to the PIL filed by him earlier seeking directions to the authorities concerned to take firm action to curb illegal mining.
“These labourers do not have the capacity to excavate 68 lakh metric tonnes of limestone which requires huge explosives and machinery. A loss of about Rs 300 crore to the state exchequer was caused by the said illegal mining,” he said and urged the court to issue directions for recovery of the money from Yarapatineni Srinivasa
Rao, the ruling party MLA from Gurazala. Reddy also sought a probe into the issue by an independent agency and punishment of the real culprits. In his miscellaneous petition, Reddy said the state government had ordered a CB-CID probe into the illegal mining and registered cases against 17 persons basing on a complaint from the assistant director of mines. In fact, the persons against whom cases were registered belong to BPL (below poverty line) families, he said.
Recently while dealing with the said PIL, a division bench comprising chief justice TBN Radhakrishnan and justice V Ramasubramanian issued notices to Srinivasa Rao to respond to the PIL. Complying with the court’s order, the Gurazala MLA filed a counter affidavit seeking removal of his name from the list of respondents, stating that the PIL was filed with an intention to damage his reputation. Refuting the petitioner’s charge, he claimed that he was in no way connected with the said illegal mining and alleged that the case was filed with political motives. As the state government had already ordered a probe, there was no need for the court to monitor the issue, he argued and urged the court to dismiss the PIL
Plea on Urdu officer posts: HC impleads selected candidates
The HC on Monday impleaded candidates who were already selected for the Urdu officer Grade II posts and granted them two weeks’ time to file a counter affidavit on the petition which challenged the notification issued by the director of TS Urdu Akademi on March 28 for recruitment of Urdu officer Grade I and Grade II posts in TS. Justice P Naveen Rao passed this order on a petition filed by Mohd Muttabi Ali Khan and another seeking cancellation of the above recruitment process and to conduct fresh recruitment through TSPSC in a fair and transparent manner.
Publish Land Acquisition Rules in Telugu, High Court tells Andhra Pradesh
The High Court on Monday directed the AP government to publish in Telugu guidelines of Land Acquisition Act and to make available the copies of it to the general public and then to receive objections from them before issuance of final notification of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Andhra Pradesh Rules, 2018. Justice MS Ramachandra Rao gave this interim order on a writ petition filed by M Srinivasa Rao and 10 others of Thullur mandal in Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh. The judge issued notices to Andhra Pradesh special chief secretary to revenue (land acquisition) and the commissioner of rehabilitation and resettlement for filing counter-affidavits and adjourned the case.