VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has made it clear that once land is taken under the land pooling scheme, authorities are obligated to pay the promised annual lease amount to the landowners, regardless of whether the land was utilised or not.
Justice Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad issued the order on Monday while hearing a petition filed by four farmers from Azzampudi village in Krishna district - Mannam Krishnamurthy, Vemuri Venkata Koteswara Rao, Kesaboyina Ramprasad, and Veeramachineni Sridhar.
The petitioners stated that their 59.18 acres of land was taken under the land pooling scheme for the expansion of Gannavaram Airport.
They alleged that the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) had failed to follow the guidelines of the land pooling scheme and had not paid the annual lease as mandated under law.
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Arguing on behalf of petitioners, PVG Umesh, presented his arguments that despite handing over the land for the airport expansion project, the four farmers had not received the annual payments they were legally entitled to.
After hearing the arguments, Justice Ramakrishna Prasad emphasised that annual lease payment is mandatory once land is acquired under pooling, irrespective of its usage status.
The AP High Court further directed CRDA officials to submit complete details of payments made to the petitioners. The matter was posted to November 24 for the next hearing.