HYDERABAD: In a relief to the affected farmers, a division bench of the High Court on Tuesday directed the land acquisition authorities not to dispossess the farmers of their lands at Kasipet, Siripuram, Uppatla and Mustyala villages in Ramagiri mandal in Peddapalli district till completion of the inquiry for awarding compensation.
The said lands were proposed to be acquired for constructing Sundilla barrage as part of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project.
The bench of acting justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice Shameem Akhter was dealing with a PIL filed by M Raji Reddy of Karimnagar alleging trespass by the authorities onto the farmers’ lands and forcible taking over of their lands for construction of barrage and lift system without completing land acquisition from Annaram barrage to Sundilla barrage.
The petitioner’s counsel B Rachana Reddy pointed out that the authorities, without completing the process of land acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act 2013, were forcibly dispossessing the farmers of their lands by entering into their lands and taking up drilling and blasting activities for construction of Sundilla barrage.
The authorities decided to acquire more than 780 acres in the four villages and issued notifications on different dates in March and April this year to conduct ‘Award Inquiry’.
Without conducting the Inquiry the authorities declared the award and now they were trying to dispossess the farmers of their lands despite farmers’ objections, she said.
The bench ordered the authorities to consider the objections of the farmers and to conduct Award Inquiry as per the Act 2013 and pass the compensation award and till then not to dispossess the farmers of their lands.
The bench posted the matter to June for further hearing.