Hyderabad HC to the rescue of farmers, orders compensation for negligence
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday came to rescue of the people of two villages whose lands and agriculture infrastructure like borewells, sheds etc., were inundated due to negligence in filling up of the Gudemdoddi reservoir in Gadwal district. The court directed the authorities to pay compensation to the affected petitioners within three weeks.
Justice S.V. Bhatt, while dealing with a petition by several farmers from Dornala and Kotthapalem villages of the district, directed the district collector to constitute a three-member committee with executive engineer of Jawaharlal Nehru Lift Irrigation Project (JLIP), special deputy collector, and Land Acquisition of JLIP and the tahsildar to inspect the lands of the petitioners and determine the compensation payable to them within three days from Wednesday and pay compensation to them within three weeks.
Sarasani Satyam Reddy, senior counsel appearing for the petitioners, told the court that the irrigation authorities had filled up the reservoir suddenly, without acquiring their lands. This, he said, led to inundation of standing crops and agriculture infrastructure. Mr Reddy urged the court to direct the authorities to acquire their lands under 2013 Land Acquisition Act.
The land acquisition officer of the JLIP, in his written statement, informed the court that they acquired lands in both the villages required for the reservoir in 2005 as per the requisition of the irrigation department.
Counsel for the petitioners refuted the argument of the land acquisition officer and said that the petitioners never approached the authorities for compensation.
The judge directed the authorities to exclude the name of the petitioners who already received the compensation and pay compensation to eligible petitioners and submit a compliance report within three weeks.
Counter petition on seniority, states told
The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday directed the TS and AP governments to file counter affidavits explaining their stand on petitions challenging the failure of the authorities of both states to prepare inter se seniority among direct recruitees and promotees in the cadre of deputy superintendent of police as per Rule 6 of AP Police Service Rules, read with Rule 33 of AP State and Subordinate Service Rules.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice A. Shankar Narayana was dealing with separate petitions by Chilukuri Chennaiah and others, seeking to direct the DGPs of both the states to forthwith prepare seniority among direct recruitees and promotees in the cadre of DSPs as per the memo dated May 19, 2015 before effecting further promotions to the post of Additional SPs and SPs (non cadre).
The petitioners told the court despite several representations by petitioner and other affected parties to the DGPs for preparing seniority list, the authorities were going ahead with promotions without the seniority list.
The bench asked how could the authorities determine who is senior without preparing the seniority list and how long would they keep the issue pending.
The bench directed both the governments to file their affidavits by Nov 21.
