HYDERABAD: The Telangana government on Wednesday urged the High Court to hear all the 177 cases filed against the Kaleshwaram project. In this regard, an application was filed before the court.State Additional Advocate General J Ramachandra Rao made this submission before the vacation bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther.
The bench said that it would hear the said application on Thursday along with the contempt case filed by six petitioners from Etigadda Kistapur villages in Siddipet district against the State government for not extending the resettlement and rehabilitation package to them under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and that they were affected due to construction of barrage which was part of Kaleshwaram project.
Earlier, the government filed an appeal challenging an order of the single judge not to take up works without extending the package benefits to the affected families who included farmers and agriculture labour. Recently, the division bench also directed the revenue authorities not to dispossess the petitioners from their lands till payment of package benefits and compensation to them under the Act 2013.
Later, petitioners N Sarita and five others filed contempt case alleging that the revenue authorities have failed to obey the court orders and trying to dispossess them forcibly from the subject lands. When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, the AAG told the court that there were 177 petitions pending before the court on the issue and urged for hearing all of them together.
Meanwhile, petitioners’ counsel Ravi Kumar told the court that authorities were going ahead with project works by using police force in violation of the court orders. The bench posted the matter to Thursday for hearing.