
MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently sought a response from the state government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking to quash a G.O. passed by the government, earmarking a 40-acre land in Manavasi village of Krishnarayapuram taluk in Karur for the establishment of a government agriculture college and research institute.
In his petition, the litigant S Prabhu stated that the Kulithalai taluk in Karur is an agriculture-dominant region and setting up a government agriculture college at Kulithalai is a long-pending demand of its people. There is a 65-acre vacant land in the Tamil Nadu Seed Farm situated at Inungur village in Kulithalai which would be suitable for establishing the government agriculture college, Prabhu said. He had also filed a petition last year highlighting the said fact but while the same is pending, the government passed the aforesaid G.O. on March 14, 2024, choosing some other land for the construction of the college.
Prabhu claimed that the above land in Manavasi village is dry land with very low groundwater level and is therefore unsuitable for constructing an agricultural college, which ought to be surrounded by farmlands for the students to get hands-on training and carry out research. Moreover, the said land belongs to Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department and therefore cannot be utilised for any other purpose, he added.
If an expert committee is constituted to identify the suitability of the land before making a decision, such a land would not have been chosen, he opined, and sought to quash the G.O. and direct the government to instead consider the suitability of the 65-acre land in Inungur village.
A bench comprising Justices MS Ramesh and AD Maria Clete issued notice to the authorities concerned and directed them to file a counter affidavit.