HYDERABAD: Pavimg way for the construction of a 22.6-km-long bund on the Mallanna Sagar Reservoir, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday modified its previous order, and directed the State government to construct the structure by following the due process of law.
A division bench of the court, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, passed this order in a petition filed by a farmer named C Ummareddy and two others. Their petition challenged the panchanama of the authorities concerned in taking possession of the petitioners’ lands in Etigadda Kistapur village in Medak. The petitioners urged the court to suspend the panchanama dated September 6, 2019, and direct authorities not to interfere with the ownership of their lands, which are under acquisition for the bund construction.
On November 22 last year, the Green Bench of the High Court had directed the State government to file a counter affidavit in the case. Back then, the government counsel had said that the standing crops on the petitioners’ lands would not be disturbed. The case had not come up for hearing since then, until now.
Recently, the government had filed an interim application with a plea to modify the impugned order, in order for it to go ahead with construction of the bund. When the matter came up for hearing, the bench felt that its previous order needed to be modified, and stated that the entire bund construction could not be stopped.