It is hiring nationally-reputed law firms to fight cases against farmers
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Hyderabad: The AP Capital Regional Development Authority is hiring nationally-reputed law firms to fight cases against farmers, land owners and activists in connection with the land pooling, land acquisition and other aspects. Twenty-two cases are pending in the High Court and one in the National Green Tribunal. These are apart from property disputes among the claimants of pooled and government land.
The CRDA has called for empanelment of legal firms. “Amaravati development would include various elements such as land pooling, acquisition, succession Act, transfer of property Act, registration Act, survey disputes, layouts, building norms, environmental issues, forest and river front developments and establishment matters. We are seeking the services of qualified legal firms to handle legal matters,” said a senior CRDA official.
Empanelment will be initially for a period of two years or till fresh empanelment is undertaken. The legal firms will be asked to vet MoUs, agreements, contracts, concession agreements, drafting of replies to notices served on CRDA and those to be served by the CRDA, filing of cases in judicial forums and providing legal opinion.
Firms should have 10 years experience at the Supreme Court and should specialise in dealing with land matters like land pooling and acquisition. The law firms should also have annual turnovers of Rs 5 crore from legal services in the past five years. It should have handled cases worth Rs 100 crore in infra projects and 50 acre in land matters.
Capital area land owner and advocate M. Seshagiri Rao, said, “Out of 22 cases, one was struck down recently. So there are 21 cases. We are going to file an affidavit in the National Green Tribunal that while the case is pending in court, the authorities are forcing us to give up the land. They have cut the power connection to farms. We are naming ministers P. Narayana, P. Pulla Rao, CRDA officials, MROs and 29 deputy tahsildars,” he said, adding that revenue authorities had recently warned them that their land would be acquired if they didn’t give it up the cases.
Bonds may fund Amaravati work:
The AP Capital Region Development Authority will issue Amaravati Infrastructure Bonds to mobilise funds to build the capital. A report prepared by the AP finance department to take up the construction of Amaravati estimated that Rs 53,547.67 crore would be required in the next 10 years. The report said apart from grants, there is a need to mobilise resources from all sources, including multilateral funding, project financing and tax-free infrastructure bonds.
The government will engage an expert agency as a consultant. Sources said the CRDA will mobilise about Rs 25,000 crore initially. At a CRDA meeting on August 21, CM N. Chandrababu Naidu had asked the finance department to prepare a financing plan for Amaravati. The report proposed to issue tax-free bonds called Amaravati infrastructure bonds. A final decision will be taken at Wednesday’s CRDA meeting.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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